Publication Archive
May 1, 2007 Data from the 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey show a slight increase in the percentage of high school students reporting alcohol use between 2003 and 2005 from 42.2% to 43.0%. There has also been a 9.8% increase in the percentage of high school students who report driving a vehicle when they had been drinking, and a 4.1% increase in their reports of riding in a vehicle driven by someone else who had been drinking. Motor vehicle crashes have long been, and continue to be, the leading cause of death of adolescents.
May 1, 2008 In Maine, we have difficulty determining the impact of race on a child’s wellbeing. Each year we are asked for data that break down the indicators by race but Maine’s small minority population makes these data unavailable.
July 2, 2009 We believe a pulic health issue that needs immediate attention is the decline in the immunization rate of Maine's children.
July 29, 2011 in 2004, Maine participated in a multi-state initiative that developed a formula defining school readiness: Ready Family + Ready Communities + Ready Early Care and Education + Ready Schools = Ready Child.
July 12, 2010 The income and employment indicators contained in the the 2010 KIDS COUNT Data Book reflect, in part, the economic downturn that occurred across the country in 2009.
November 29, 2011 The goal of this project is to improve the educational stability of children in the custody of DHHS. To that end, MCA studied the early stages of implementation of the state and federal laws and identified positive advancements and barriers to success. This report includes short- and long-term recommendations on best implementation practices to the stakeholders, including DHHS’s Division of Child Welfare, MDOE, school personnel and other agencies.
July 29, 2011 Over the past 6 years, a greater number of Maine children under age 6 in Maine were living at or below the poverty line than in other New England states. The poverty rate for children under 6 years old in Maine is 20%.
April 13, 2011 On a positive note, Maine children continue to be served by support systems that reduce the impact of the economy. Many of the programs that create support for low-income families and their children continue to have higher numbers being served than in years past.
October 1, 2012 This report highlights data trends whenever possible. Of overarching concern is that Maine has not improved in a large number of school readiness measures, but remained stagnant or declined over the past 10 years.
January 28, 2013 Almost 20 percent of Maine high school students do not graduate. But what’s often overlooked is that, even for those who do graduate, about 15 percent still end up “disconnected”—not in school, not employed or seeking employment. In 2010, Maine ranked 32nd in the percentage of young adults ages 25-29 with a bachelor’s degree or higher, well behind our New England neighbors and the nation as a whole.
November 14, 2013 Many young children are living in households where incomes are not keeping up with the costs of raising a family. In 2010, Maine’s livable wage (the income needed for a family of three to meet their basic needs of rent, food, child care and health insurance) was $45,427. In 2012, approximately 45 percent of Maine children (116,000) lived in a low income family.
December 15, 2015 While we have seen some improvement in median family incomes, not enough of our jobs provide family supporting wages, leaving 108,000 Maine kids (41 percent) in households struggling to pay for child care, housing, food and other basic needs.