We Make KIDS COUNT!

WELCOME TO THE BEST SOURCE FOR DATA ON VIRGINIA'S CHILDREN!

Voices for Virginia’s Children is part of the KIDS COUNT national network funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  KIDS COUNT is the best source for comprehensive data on child well-being in Virginia. The KIDS COUNT Data Center is open to all and provides users with a powerful tool to view statewide and locality-level data in the following domains:

• Education
• Economic Well-Being
• Health
• Safety and Risky Behaviors

By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, the Voices KIDS COUNT system advances local and state efforts to improve the lives of children. Tracking multiple indicators over time allows Voices to highlight emerging trends and risks and then guide policymakers to respond in ways that protect and enhance child well-being. By measuring child outcomes, the system helps to evaluate and improve policy initiatives and also increases public accountability for results. Virginia KIDS COUNT fosters data-driven policy-making, public education and advocacy on behalf of children. 

VIRGINIA KIDS COUNT DATA CENTER

• Statewide and Locality-Level Data Center - This interactive site allows users to access Virginia city, county, and state data and to create custom profiles, maps, and graphs. Watch this video to learn how to use the interactive Data Center.
• Census Data
  This site consists of population data about age, gender, households, families, and housing units from the Census Short Form and social, economic, and housing data from the Census Long Form. You may view data for states, cities, counties and legislative districts.

FEATURE VIRGINIA KIDS COUNT DATA ON YOUR WEBSITE

The interactive KIDS COUNT widget (below) provides quick access to rankings and national data on the ten key indicators from the 2009 KIDS COUNT Data Book. This widget can be linked to your website or blog.

NATIONAL 2009 KIDS COUNT DATA BOOK

For the first time, the national KIDS COUNT Data Book portrays long-term as well as one-year changes in indicators of well-being by comparing current data with data from the year 2000. The following long-term trends are noted on Virginia measures:

Four measures showed improvement:

1. child death rate
2. teen death rate
3. teen birth rate
4. high school dropout rate

Two measures did not change:

• percent of teens not in school and not working (“idle teens”)
• child poverty rate

Four measures worsened:

• percentage of low-birthweight babies
• infant mortality rate
• percentage of children living in families where no parent has full-time year-round employment
• percentage of children in single parent families

Counting What Counts, the 2009 KIDS COUNT Data Book’s feature essay, recommends major improvements in national and state-level efforts to collect and report meaningful data on the status of children and urges policy makers to then rely on this data to design and evaluate policy initiatives to improve child well-being.

To receive copies of the National KIDS COUNT Data Book or inquire about other publications, contact Voices' staff.

If you are unable to locate the data you need or for more information about Voices' data work, please email Frank Beylotte or call him at 804-649-0184 x 22.