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...“The Children’s Initiative and County Board of Supervisors Chairman Greg Cox and Vice Chairwoman Dianne Jacob released the 2007 San Diego County Report Card on Children and Families. The Report Card documents the status and progress of 25 leading indicators of children’s health and well-being in the region. The Report Card also makes recommendations for change.”

The 2007 Report Card shows that San Diego County performs better than the state and national averages on immunization, percentage of children enrolled in early care and education and children living in poverty.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors started the Report Card in 1998, asking how are our children doing and where should we be focusing our efforts. “In 2006 the Board of Supervisors partnered with The Children's Initiative to redesign the Report Card,” said San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairman Greg Cox. “This Report Card takes us to the next level, documenting where our children are now, what are national best practices, and giving local San Diego specific recommendations.”

“If you can not measure, you can not improve” “The 2007 Report card shows the real challenge for where we are going and for what needs to be done to improve” “Now we got the road map and we know where we could improve and what needs to be done”

“It is important to continue to review our indicators to make sure we are measuring the right things for our children’s health and well-being,” said San Diego County Board of Supervisors Vice-Chairwoman, Dianne Jacob. “This Report Card tells us how we are doing. It tells us that that more mothers are obtaining early prenatal care, more children are getting their immunizations, school achievement is improving, and more children have health coverage. But more work needs to be done in preventing low birth-weight, helping our kids to eat healthfully and get fit, and stopping domestic violence.”

Jean Shepard, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, County Health and Human Services Agency stressed that the Health and Human Services Agency is committed to continuing work to improve the health of children and working with our community partners to address these issues. Shepard said: “These issues are multi-faceted and require all of us to work together towards better outcomes. We need the partnership of government, community-based organizations, service providers, local leaders, the education and faith communities, and families to make San Diego even better than it already is.”

For the first time, this Report Card includes recommendations, based on what works nationally and what has been done in San Diego County. Analysis of best practices and recommendations for change are included for each indicator. The top ten recommendations focus on low birthweight, oral health, school attendance, school achievement, obesity, juvenile probation, youth DUI, poverty, child abuse and neglect, and childhood mortality.

In partnership with the County of San Diego, the education community, public safety, the medical community, and youth-serving agencies, The Children's Initiative instituted significant changes in this new Report Card. Sandra McBrayer, Chief Executive Officer of The Children’s Initiative, said: “We convened and worked with both a leadership and scientific review team comprised of leaders in the fields of education, health, juvenile justice and safety. The Initiative consulted with community stakeholders, national policy experts and many community partners.”

The Children's Initiative is a nonprofit child advocacy agency that works to develop, strengthen, and expand services, programs and policies to improve the lives of children and families in San Diego. The Initiative works in the fields of health, education, juvenile justice and after school.

The San Diego County Report Card on Children and families 2007 is available for download on www.thechildrensinitiative.org