Each year, the Maine Kids Count Data Book tracks the health and welfare of our children.

The book provides clear benchmarks to measure progress and tracks setbacks and trouble areas in which Maine kids are falling behind.

The 2005 report was released Tuesday, and it contains much to be proud of. Births to single mothers and teen pregnancy rates continue to decline, infant mortality remains low, and prenatal care and immunization rates are high.

Only about 7 percent – or 21,000 – of Maine’s children lack health insurance. The mechanism is in place to insure more than half of those without coverage. About 12,000 of the uninsured kids are eligible for MaineCare, but their parents haven’t signed up for services.

But there’s bad news, too. Child and adolescent suicide rates are significantly higher than the national average, despite recent declines. There are 6.3 suicides per 1,000 children age 10-19 in the state; the national rate is 4.3 per 1,000.

Hospitalizations for substance abuse and mental-health diagnoses have increased 30 percent between 2000 and 2003, and depression and mood disorders are the leading cause of hospitalizations for children ages 6 to 17.

Poverty is a persistent problem. The number of children younger than 5 living in poverty has increased 19 percent in the last year and now represents nearly one in five young children. And almost 40 percent of the state’s children live in low-income families in which the parents are working but don’t earn enough to pay for basic needs. Thirty-three percent of schoolchildren receive subsidized school lunches. In Washington County, the number is a disturbing 52 percent. Androscoggin (38 percent), Oxford (42 percent) and Franklin (43 percent) also come in above the statewide average.

The trends are clear. More families are struggling to make ends meet. For all the good that programs like MaineCare can accomplish in improving health coverage for kids, its success is limited when eligible families don’t participate.

It’s easy to get lost in a barrage of numbers and forget the faces and feelings of Maine’s kids. As lawmakers on the state and federal level debate the budget, the first question they should answer is why we tolerate 18 percent of our children living in poverty.