Other Economic Well Being
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; Missouri Office of Administration, Division of Budget and Planning.
Percentage of students who are enrolled in the free or reduced price National School Lunch Program. Children from households with incomes less than 130 percent of poverty are eligible for free lunches; those from households below 185 percent of poverty are eligible for reduced price lunches. Rate is expressed as percent of total school enrollment.
The KIDS COUNT in Missouri 2011 Data Book, a publication of Partnership for Children, provides information on measures of child well-being for the state, its 114 counties and St. Louis City. By highlighting data trends across time and geographic areas, this book gives local and state policymakers, as well as other child advocates, the crucial information they need to make informed decisions regarding how best to support the well-being of children across the state.
According to the Census 2010 data, there are more than 1.4 million children living in Missouri. One in five of these children are of an ethnic/racial minority, including African American, Asian, Native American and children of one or more race/ethnicities. Although still a relatively small part of the overall child population, Hispanic children now make up 3%, a proportion almost double what it was in 1990.
To track changes over time, KIDS COUNT IN Missouri provides the most currently available data (2010 as well as data from 2006,the base year). (Please note that the exact dates for which data are provided differ slightly between indicators and outcomes). Between the base and current years, three KIDS COUNT in Missouri outcome measures worsened, seven improved and one remained unchanged. Measures that improved are: high school drop outs, infant mortality, child deaths, teen violent deaths, child abuse and neglect family assessments, births to mothers without a high school diploma and births to teens. The two measures that worsened were number of out-of-home placement treatment entries and students enrolled in free/reduced lunch, which increased 10% and 15%, respectively, between the base and current years. One measure, the percent of low birth-weight infants, remained the same.