Our Summer 2003 Report Card

How are we doing? The latest edition of America’s Children:Key National Indicators of Well-Being was released on July 18, 2003. This is an annual government report card produced by the Fed-eral Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics to make sure we know what is going on with our children.

When a child’s report card comes home from school, the parents are monitoring the child’s progress. With this national report card, how-ever, we play both roles: it is our progress in caring for children that is measured, and we are the ones responsible for making the changes.

Much of the news this year is good.

Childhood death rates are dropping; teen birthrates are dropping; daily tobacco use is dropping; more students are graduating from high school, more children are taking honors classes – there is much to celebrate.

But the report also underlines that we are failing in healthy nutrition and in physical activity. Obesity in children continues to skyrocket to previously unimaginable levels.

I’m looking forward to the year that we get the first report card showing that we have turned the tide!