Maine ranks 13 among 50 states in overall child well-being, according to the 2012 Kids Count report recently released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged children.

The ranking is determined by indicators including economic well-being, education, health and family and community life.

“Maine’s higher rankings in the health and family and community domains are due to some of our successful statewide efforts, but we still have cause for concern,” says Claire Berkowitz, research and Kids Count director of Maine Children’s Alliance (MCA).

New Hampshire wound up as the top-ranked state, followed by Massachusetts and Vermont. Nevada, New Mexico and Mississippi came in last.

The report shows areas of most concern for Maine including economic well-being – ranked 18 in the country – and education – ranked 23.

However, Maine ranked three in health status and seven in family and community life, according to MCA.

According to AECF the Kids Count child well-being index has been updated and expanded to better capture the well-being of children and to identify areas of strength and weakness. 

According to Berkowitz, Maine’s families continue to struggle economically. She believes that the recent state budget cuts to Head Start and other child care are to blame and “it is likely that the future success of our children and our state will be negatively affected.”

From 2008 to 2010, the number of children with unemployed parents increased by 17 percent. In 2010 alone, 34 percent of Maine’s children had parents without full-time, year-round employment, according to MCA.

In 2010, 18 percent of children in Maine were living in poverty – one-third of those children were living in households with a high-cost housing burden, which means 30 percent of income was spent on housing.

“Part-time or sporadic employment does not provide families with the level of income and benefits needed to meet basic needs like rent, food, and quality child care,” the report reads.

But there is some good news – according to the report, the number of Maine teens not in school and not working actually declined 13 percent from 2008 to 2010. 

The report shows that, from an education standpoint, things are improving, but not drastically – between 2005 and 2010, the number of children not attending preschool increased by a total of 3 percent.

From 2008 to 2010, 58 percent of Maine’s three- and four-year-olds were not enrolled in a preschool program, a slight improvement over 2005 to 2007 when 60 percent were not enrolled. 

Fourth grade reading scores, however, have slipped – in 2005, 65 percent of Maine’s fourth-graders scored below the proficiency level on the 2011 National Assessment for Educational Process (NAEP); in 2011, 68 percent scored poorly, bringing Maine from 31st to 12th on the national scale.

According to the report, eighth-graders improved their NAEP math scores by 13 percent between 2005 and 2011– reducing the number of students below the proficiency level.

Additionally, the report shows that between 2006 and 2009 more of Maine’s students graduated high school on time, from 74 percent to 80 percent.

Between 2005 and 2009, the number of low-birthweight babies showed a slight decrease from 6.8 to 6.3 percent, according to MCA, while the national rate – 8.2 percent – stayed the same.

In 2010, 96 percent of Maine’s children had health insurance coverage (which means 11,000 children still lacked coverage) as compared to 2008, when only 93 percent of Maine’s children did, a 43-percent increase.

According to the report, Maine’s child and teen – ages one to 19 – death  rate was down alomost 10 percent – from 36.2 per 100,000 in 2005 to 26.5 per 100,000 in 2009.

Teen drug and alcohol abuse is also down, the report says. From 2008 to 2009, only 7 percent – or 7,000 – Maine teens reported substance abuse or dependence, down from 11,000 between 2005 and 2006.

The report showed that there were more children living in single-family homes in 2010 than in 2005 – in 2010, 90,000 children, or 34 percent of Maine’s children lived in single-family homes, up from 31 percent in 2005.

In 2010, 6 percent of Maine’s children lived in households headed by an adult without a high school diploma, down 1 percent from 2005.

However, compared to the 15 percent nationally, Maine’s doesn’t fare too bad – although the report does suggest “higher levels of parental education are strongly associated with better outcomes for children.” 

Children living in high-poverty areas worsened, according to MCA. It reported that during 2006 to 2010, 3 percent of Maine’s children lived in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, up from 1 percent in 2000.

On the bright side, Maine’s teen birth rate remained stable at 24 births per 1,000 for females ages 15 to 19 from 2005 to 2006.