Voices for Utah Children

Utah ranked first nationally in the percentage of children in single-parent families in 2008, just as it has every year since 2000. Moreover, the share of children in the state living in these arrangements dropped during this period, from 21 percent to 18 percent. The state also tied for first in the share of children living in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment. In 2008, just 19 percent of Utah children lacked secure parental employment, well below the U.S. rate of 27 percent. KIDS COUNT Data Center. To access information for Utah go to KIDS COUNT Data Center - Utah.

The 21st annual report is complemented by the expanded KIDS COUNT Data Center, which contains hundreds of measures of child well-being and allows users to create maps and graphs of the data at the national, state, county, and city level.

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Utah No. 4 in national child well-being report (Deseret News, 7-27-10)

Most of the names on a controversial list of alleged undocumented immigrants are of people legally receiving benefits or the parents of American-born children receiving benefits, officials said Wednesday. 

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Controversial list centered on kid citizens, state says  (Salt Lake Tribune, 7-22-10)

Thanks to an early provision in the federal health reform law that goes into effect this fall, Utah families with sick kids will soon be able to purchase previously unattainable private health coverage. Under the new rules, insurers can no longer deny children coverage or sell policies that exclude benefits for their pre-existing health conditions.

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Help is on the way for families with sick (or recovering) kids (Salt Lake Tribune, 7-9-10)

Today, Voices for Utah Children, called on Congress to take immediate action when they return after the 4^th of July recess in order to provide relief to the millions of children and families impacted as a result of the recession by extending provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Voices for Utah Children Urges Immediate Action on Kid Fix Legislation (7-8-10)

A national poll released June 29, 2010 reveals strong bipartisan support for the DREAM Act, federal...  Read more

This month the Census Bureau released its population estimates for 2009, including the population below age 18. Exactly half of the states (plus Washington, D.C.) have fewer children now than they had in 2000. Nationally, the number of children grew by 2.2 million over the period, but most of this growth has been concentrated in a relatively few states. There are 10 states where the number of children increased by at least 100,000 since 2000, and Utah is among them.

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Don't underfund our children's future (Deseret News 6-25-10)