More African-American children are living in poverty, many black kids still do not have access to quality health care, and a disproportionately high rate of black teenagers are having babies, according to a new report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Heather Higginbottom, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told African-American journalists during a recent conference call.

In 2007, about 15 percent of African-American children were reported to have asthma, compared with 7 percent of white children and 9 percent of Hispanics. Birth rates for adolescents ages 15 to 17 years old rose to 35 percent for black teenagers, compared to 11 percent of whites.

Higginbottom said the trend with racial disparities among black children began long before the recent recession, saying that problems for poor black children have mounted significantly with many of their parents now out of work.

Although the statistics for some black children may seem daunting, the good news, Higginbottom said, is that the Obama administration is working hard to improve the quality of life for young African-Americans.

She said the administration will take a “holistic” approach to helping children in crisis by allocating billions of dollars for programs like Head Start and other educational initiatives for young people.

The poor diets and eating habits of many children and adolescents is also a major concern. “Such patterns are major factors in the increasing rate of childhood obesity over the past decades,” the report stated.

In February, President Barack Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides quality health care to 11 million kids – including four million who were previously uninsured.

Obama is also allocating $5 billion for early learning programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, child care and programs for children with special needs.

Formally established in April 1997, the forum collects data on children and youth through 22 federal agencies, as well as partners in private research organizations.

The 2009 report presents 40 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. According to its findings:

* Eighteen percent of all children ages 0–17 lived in poverty, an increase from 17 percent in 2006. Compared with white, non-Hispanic children, the poverty rate was higher for black children and for Hispanic children. In 2007, 10 percent of white, non-Hispanic children, 35 percent of black children and 29 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty.

* About five percent of white, non-Hispanic children in married-couple families lived in poverty in 2007, compared with 32 percent of white, non-Hispanic children in female-householder families. Eleven percent of black children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared with 50 percent of black children in female-householder families.

* Racial and ethnic diversity has grown dramatically in the United States in the last three decades. In 2008, the report said, 56 percent of U.S. children were White, non-Hispanic; 22 percent were Hispanic; 15 percent were Black; 4 percent were Asian; and 5 percent were "all other races."

* The percentage of children who are Hispanic has increased faster than that of any other racial or ethnic group, growing from 9 percent of the child population in 1980 to 22 percent in 2008. By 2021, it is projected that one in four children in the United States will be of Hispanic origin.

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I believe in family size limitations. With natural resources getting smaller , compromises MUST be made. IF YOU ARE POOR have ONE child and quit.
ONE AND DONE>>NO MORE NO MORE
Welfare kicks out 4.6 billion a year, wonder why your federal tax is high, this is one of the causes.
LAQUESHA cannot stop having children.

by   
Jazflutesmith
July 21, 2009, 1:36 pm
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A recent poll was done in my city about female black sexuality, TEN PERCENT OF THE POLL suggested that these women are bisexual... Don't know about brothers because they do not tell. Sisters from the study freely give that info out...DANG

by   
Jazflutesmith
July 21, 2009, 1:32 pm
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Stats continued. we also are easily swayed by spending giving money to things that really do not help us : black churhes, jewelry, eyelashes, rims, cars, constant upgrade on cellphones.
WE EAT TO DAMN MUCH WE ARETOOOFAT
We have kindergarten children coming to school weighing 100 pounds or more.

by   
Jazflutesmith
July 21, 2009, 1:30 pm
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Stats: Forty percent of prisons are comprised of black men. Who do you think cornrolls their hair, ?OTHER INMATES.. ENJOY
One out of three black births end in abortion
70 to 80 percent of black children are born to unwed mothers. We make up 40 percent of the foster care rolls, but we are only 11 percent of the population.

by   
Jazflutesmith
July 21, 2009, 1:27 pm
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Player: When people co-exist & adhere to certain rules & principles, they ARE civilized. Unfortunately, civilizations comprise SOME people with serious shortcomings. A bigger problem than that is the RACIST who plant their venom about forced sterilization & forced limits on family sizes of “certain” people, and the “uncletom negros” who buy into that & repeat it. Are you one of those?

by   
Sevennotrump
July 21, 2009, 12:28 pm
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We shoiuld doa better job taking care of the children we have first and then breed some more...
Seven I will assume you are using the word civilization very loosely...were is it...humans got along way to go before they are civilized...we over rate ourselves so much...we do...facts prove it out..we want to believe that we are actually really good when in fact we all a D-...it's how the human brain evolved that limits us...look to another advanced species we would be a joke...

by   
Player
July 21, 2009, 10:13 am
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Muldrow: In the four years, 3 months I have been reading BAW, yours is among the DUMBEST and most RACIST comments I’ve ever seen posted. Did you not read the article? Whites have babies out of wedlock as well, (in actual numbers, more often than Blacks do), this IS NOT merely a matter of out-of-wedlock, this is a matter of skin color. If you are white, you are a racist pig; if you are African-American, you are a dumb “negro”. How about we have a policy of NO babies, then civilization will cease to exist, YOU MORON!

by   
Sevennotrump
July 21, 2009, 9:44 am
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Stop having numerous children w/o the benefit of marriage or a stable income and education and we would not have this problem? America needs to drop the policy of the one-child rule like in China!

by   
Muldrowsydney
July 21, 2009, 8:55 am
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Stop having numerous children w/o the benefit of marriage or a stable income and education and we would not have this problem? America needs to drop the policy of the one-child rule like in China!

by   
Muldrowsydney
July 21, 2009, 8:55 am
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