KIDS COUNT

The Center for Public Policy Priorities today released The State of Texas Children: Texas KIDS COUNT Annual Data Book 2008-09, a resource that provides the latest look at the well-being of children in Texas and for every county in the state. This year's data book includes a special essay on “Closing the Educational Gaps,” revealing that community and statewide factors play a pivotal role in a child's academic achievement.

A Child Alone and Without Papers, released today by the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), reveals what happens to more than 43,000 undocumented, unaccompanied children removed annually from the United States and repatriated to their home countries. Policy analysis and interviews with adults and children in the system revealed the U.S. often compromises children’s rights, safety, and well-being, contrary to international law and U.S. child welfare standards.

For more information, including a two-page summary, backgrounders and appendices, visit www.cppp.org/repatriation.

Conditions for teens are looking brighter in Texas, as the teen death rate, teen birth rate, and percent of teens not attending school and not working have improved. This is according to the KIDS COUNT Data Book, a national state-by-state report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report is a precursor to the fall release of The State of Texas Children 2008, which will provide child well-being data for every county in Texas.