Annual Report Shows Albany County Children And Teens Are Doing Well

The Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance (WCAA) released  its annual report on the well-being of children in Wyoming. The annual report  shows Albany County as  having the lowest teen birth rate in the state. Although that may be a good thing, Albany county has a few things that it hopes to change in coming years.
The report released is titled “Painting by Numbers: Impact of a boom ‘decade’ on Wyoming’s children, 2000-2008.”The report takes an in depth look at how the last decade has influenced children who live in Wyoming. It uses 12 key indicators of well-being on which it bases its findings. Most of the statistics gathered are grouped into two different time periods, the first is from 200-2004, the other is 2004-2008.

WCAA Director Deanna Frey said, “The level of support behind this year’s Kids Count report demonstrates the growing unity among groups working to improve outcomes for Wyoming’s children.” The report this year received sponsorship from 14 child-advocacy groups as well as direct-service providers from across Wyoming.

Albany County scored above the state average in seven of the key indicators on which the report was based. Among the seven indicators were teen birth rate, births to unmarried mothers, mothers receiving less than adequate prenatal care, births to mothers with less than a high school education, out-of-county births, infant mortality rate as well as teen death rate.

Marc Homer who is Director of the Wyoming Kids Count said "Albany County does a better job than most of supporting and providing opportunities for teenagers through private and public organizations and programs." Through the years Albany County has done a lot to serve youth in the community, and provide programs that are beneficial to children who may be struggling in one of the aforementioned 12 key indicators.

One area in which Albany County stands out is the teen birth rate. And that is something Albany County can be proud of. Historically Albany County has maintained a low teen birth rate. On average the County maintains a lower rate than the state and is well under the national average. Statistics from 2008 show Albany has the lowest teen birth rate in the state at 13 females(15-19)per 1,000. That is compared to the state average that was 46 per 1,000 females ages 15-19, which is up from 40 per 1,000 in 2004.

The 2008 findings also show that the County’s rate of birth to unmarried mothers which is 25 percent was also lower than the state average of 35 percent. Albany County also scored better than the state average for mothers receiving adequate prenatal care. The report shows 24 percent of mothers in the county received less-than-adequate prenatal care compared to the state average of 30 percent.

Albany County also did better than the state average for out-of-county births. The out-of-county birth rate attempts to show if a community lacks the necessary resources to deliver babies and if there are medical services available to people. In five counties, 100 percent of mothers go out of the county to give birth.

To top off the report only 10 percent of babies in Albany County were born to mothers who have less than a high school education. That stat is compared to the state average of 16 percent. The report shows many positive trends for the county but also shows Albany County is at or below the state averages for children receiving free or reduced-price school lunches, children living in poverty, child death rate and the rate for low-birth weight babies.

For more information in the State wide report you can visit:

http://www.kidscount.wykids.org/2010_WY_Report/WYOMING.html.

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