O.C. Rates High in Care of Children, Study Says : Youth report: But a rising number of youngsters live in poverty and more are being incarcerated.

Orange County ranks among the best in the state in providing for the health and welfare of children, but it is home to a “troubling” rise of children living below the poverty level, according to a statewide study released Thursday.

The county-by-county report, released by the advocacy group Children Now, paints a picture of an Orange County burgeoning with children of diverse backgrounds, growing up in conditions of extreme wealth and poverty.

“There’s a lot to be proud of in Orange County, but there are areas that need work,” said Wendy Lazarus, author of the report. “Since poverty is often a precursor of other problems, such as the high school-dropout rate and teen pregnancies, it probably is the single most important measuring stick.”

Throughout California, the number of children growing up in extreme poverty has taken a dramatic upswing, according to the report, which also found disturbing increases in the statewide rate of juvenile incarcerations, child-abuse reports, foster-care placements and teen pregnancies.

Overall, the state was given a D for the way it has cared for its children. This grade--given by Children Now for the third consecutive year--”represents a ticking time bomb and should be taken as a strong warning sign,” the report said.

Even traditionally affluent Orange County was not spared bad news.

The county, for example, was ranked among nine in the state that have made good progress in taking care of their children, scoring above the state average in all 10 areas covering health, safety, education, family life and teen years.

But author Lazurus pointed out that Orange County had a 28% increase in the number of children living in extreme poverty during the last three years, second only to Imperial County’s 30% jump. From 1980 to 1990, the number of children jumped by 49%. In 1987, 5.8% of Orange County’s children were in families receiving welfare, but last year, the figure grew to 7.4%.

“The county needs to take a hard look at where are the kids behind these troubling numbers,” said Lazarus, the group’s vice president. “Where are the poor kids and the teen mothers? Are they in particular neighborhoods? There’s a lot you can do to prevent teen pregnancies through targeted programs, or helping kids train for jobs by marshaling some strategies that focus on where these kids are.”

Gene Howard, director of children’s services for the county, said he was “encouraged” after looking at the report.

“Orange County scored better than the California average on every indicator and better than the national average on all but two,” he said. “Orange County does have a lot of wealth, but apparently we have allocated a good portion of that wealth well.

“We could have put that wealth in a multiplicity of places and turned out worse than average. Just because this county is wealthy doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take credit that we did better than most,” Howard said.

The percentage of children living in extreme poverty “is still a low number, given 2.45 million people in Orange County,” said Ange Doti, the county’s director of financial assistance.

There are about 29,000 families receiving welfare, with about 22,000 of them headed by single women, he said. The remainder are households with two unemployed parents, “and that’s where we’re seeing the most rapid rise,” Doti said. “We think for the most part it is due to the recession. If they’re in low-paying jobs and get laid off, with no unemployment insurance, they come to us shortly afterwards.”

The Children Now study applied statistics gathered from state agencies to “benchmark” indicators encompassing a variety of forces affecting children’s well-being. The benchmarks were school testing scores, high school-dropout rates, infant mortality, low birth weight, violent crime in the community, foster care, births to unmarried teens, juvenile incarceration, child support payments and children living in extreme poverty.

The report found that Orange County has the third largest child population among all 58 counties in the state, and 24% of all residents are under age 18. Orange County’s children are more ethnically diverse than the general population. Anglos make up a bare majority of children, 54%, compared to 64% in the total county population. The largest minority population among children is Latino with 32%, Asian at 12% and African American 2%.

In other county findings, the report noted:

- 81% of the poor children who needed dental care in 1990 did not receive it.

- Nearly 3,000 children received subsidized child care in 1990--about a quarter of those estimated to need it.

- Births to unmarried girls, aged 15 to 19, rose from 19.3% in 1986 to 30% in 1989.

The county fared worse than the national average in two categories, juvenile incarceration and child-support payments.

From 1987 to 1989, the number of incarcerated juveniles aged 10 to 17 rose from 256 per 100,000 to 297. The U.S. rate is 221. Among the state’s counties, Orange County ranked 18th in a list of 25.

Allen Lindeman, acting chief deputy for institutions with the county Probation Department, had not seen the report but said he was not surprised. Even with diversion programs designed to counsel, rehabilitate and keep offenders out of Juvenile Hall, the county knows that by the end of the 1990s, it is going to need more juvenile beds, he said. A population surge of children aged 10 to 18 is expected, he added.

Throughout the state, the report found four out of five counties have increasing rates of children who are removed from their parents and placed in foster care. During the last four years, foster-care placements have jumped 42% statewide. Orange County was ranked eighth best out of 46 reporting counties, with 4.9 children per 1,000 placed in foster care.

Nearly 75% of California’s children live in communities where violent crime rates are higher than the national average. During the last four years, the youth homicide rate, for example, has increased 25%. Orange County was listed 17th in the state in that category, with the violent crime rate half that of the statewide figure.

Times staff writer Claire Speigel contributed to this report.

State of the Children

Children in Poverty

The number of children living in extreme poverty jumped by 49% between 1980 and 1990. between 1987 and 1990, there was a 28% increase in children living in poverty. Orange County had the second largest increase in the state after Imperial County:

1980: Number of children: 29,447 Percent of all children in county: 5.6% 1987: Number of children: 32,537 Percent of all children in county: 5.8% 1990: Number of children: 43,738 Percent of all children in county: 7.4% Juvenile Incarceration Children aged 10 to 17 in jail, per 100,000 Orange County: 297 California: 306 U.S.: 221 Births to Unmarried Teens Births to unmarried girls 15 to 19 years old, per 1,000 Orange County: 30 California: 42.9 U.S.: 36.8 Source: Children Now, 1991