Recent analyses by R2LP prepared as updates to the 2004 report How Ready Is Providence? indicate positive trends in the well-being of Providence's children. For example, childhood injuries are down and immunization rates are up.
Fewer children, both in Providence and statewide, required hospitalization as a result of unintentional injuries in 2005 than in 2002. In Providence, these injuries dropped from a rate of 3.74 per 1,000 children to 2.89 per 1,000. The largest number of these hospitalizations (36 percent) were a result of accidental falls, followed by poisonings (24 percent).
Rates of immunization appear to have increased in Providence. An analysis of immunization data for children enrolled in the Providence public schools (PreK through Grade 2) in the 2007-2008 academic year found that of the those whose data were available and valid, 87 percent received the third dose of the Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis (DTaP) vaccinations on time and 79 percent received the fourth dose on time. When data are examined at a neighborhood level, all but two of Providence’s 25 neighborhoods experienced an increase in rates of immunization since 2004.
The data in other updated indicators also revealed some positive trends:
- Childhood lead poisoning in Providence decreased 4 percentage points between 2003 and 2007, and an impressive 14 points since 2000. In 2000, 17 percent of all children in Providence who were screened tested positive for elevated blood lead levels; in 2007, that figure fell to 5 percent.
- The citywide percentage of births to mothers with 12 or more years of education increased slightly – from 66 percent in the years between 1998 and 2002 to 68 percent between 2003 and 2007. With few exceptions, the relationship between parent education and child poverty is evident in the city’s neighborhoods, with child poverty tending to fall as education levels rise.
Analysis on other indicators, however, found some continuing challenges:
- Children in Providence are the most likely in Rhode Island to have a parent in prison. Between 2004 and 2007, the total number of children in Providence with a parent serving a sentence increased by 24 percent, rising to 1,300 by April 2007. This is an increase of 255 children since 2004 and represents a rate increase of 5.6 per 1,000 children. It means that an estimated 1 in every 35 children in the city has a parent currently serving a sentence.
- While local wages for child-care professionals have increased slightly since 2003, the disparity between their earnings and those of public school teachers has grown significantly. The mean wage for a child-care professional in 2007 in the Providence metropolitan area was $21,050-$27,893, while the mean wage for a public school kindergarten teacher was $60,680. Research consistently finds a strong correlation between staff wages and program quality in early child-care settings. Also inextricably linked with low wages is the challenge of employee turnover and the resulting lack of stability that pre-school children too often experience in these settings.
Among the many sources of data used in these analyses were: Rhode Island Department of Health, Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, Providence Public School Department, Rhode Island Kids Count, and The Providence Plan.
Partial funding for the updates was provided by the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership at the Urban Institute and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
