South Carolina Kids Count Report, 2003.

This Kids Count report examines statewide trends in the well-being of South Carolina's children. The statistical portrait is based on 44 indicators in the areas of demographics, family, economic status, health, readiness and early school performance, scholastic achievement, and adolescent risk behaviors. The indicators are: (1) population; (2) births to teen mothers; (3) births to mothers not completing high school; (4) births to single mothers; (5) divorce rate; (6) single-parent family; (7) parents working and child care; (8) family violence; (9) separation from parents; (10) abuse and neglect; (11) out of home placements; (12) adult/child ratio; (13) poverty; (14) income; (15) child support payments; (16) prenatal care; (17) low birth weight; (18) infant mortality; (19) childhood injuries and deaths; (20) immunization; (21) sexually transmitted diseases; (22) healthy lifestyles; (23) tobacco use; (24) disabilities; (25) emotional and behavioral disorders; (26) inadequate health care; (27) Medicaid enrollment; (28) ambulatory care; (29) first-grade readiness; (30) first- through third-grade failure rates; (31) over-age for grade three; (32) special education; (33) exit exam failures; (34) achievement trends; (35) Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test results; (36) dropout rates; (37) adolescents not in school or employed; (38) alcohol use; (39) heavy drinking; (40) drug use; (41) sexual activity and pregnancy; (42) juvenile delinquency; (43) not in school or employed; and (44) adolescent deaths. Statewide data and summary information are provided for each indicator. The bulk of the document presents data by county for each indicator. The data on families, economic status, health, readiness, school achievement, and adolescent risk behaviors suggest that too many children are at risk of not growing up to become self-supporting adults, good family members, and responsible community citizens. Thirty-one percent of children live in single-parent families, 18.8 percent live in poverty, 34.8 percent will not graduate from school, 37.1 percent of high school students use alcohol, and 20.1 percent use drugs each month. On the positive side, 85.5 percent of the state's children are born to non-teen mothers, 59.9 percent are born to married parents, and 68.7 percent live in two-parent families. 81.2 percent are not poor, and 86.4 percent are assessed as ready for the first grade. (HTH)