Children are safe, healthy and ready to succeed in school.

Recent research strongly emphasizes the importance of the early years in child development.  When young children live in poverty, they have a substantially reduced opportunity to have the nutritional resources, and cognitive, social and verbal stimulation necessary for optimal development.  Education studies confirm that, on average, students living in poverty enter kindergarten and 1st grade already behind their peers.  Reducing the impact of poverty on young children is an essential strategy for improving health for the next generation. Increasing access to high quality affordable child care and early quality preschool can help reduce the impact of poverty on children.

This graph shows a decline in pediatric hospital discharges for asthma from 20/10,000 to 10/10,000 from 2001 to 2002 for North Hawaii.  Further analysis is suggested. Clearly more recent data is needed.  As more recent data becomes available, it will be posted on our website at www.nhop.org.

Worrisome indicators include third grade reading levels at some of the North Hawaii public schools. Caution is urged in reviewing this data because there are many factors, beyond the control of schools, which contribute to below average reading scores.  Reviewing scores for 3rd grade at one point in time is not as useful as looking at change over time, or as useful as looking at an individual student’s improvement over time. 

Note:  In 2004, Waikoloa Elementary School had better than expected 3rd grade reading scores, suggesting further analysis of this success.

The graph to the right compares the percent of students meeting 3rd grade reading proficiency in 2006 and 2007 for different elementary schools in North Hawaii.  Five schools who reported data for both years reported a higher proportion of students meeting proficiency in 2007 than in 2006.

However, caution is urged in interpreting because numbers are small.

Math Proficency

A comparison of 3rd grade math proficiency from 2006 to 2007 for the same North Hawaii schools showed improvement in year 2007.

Decreasing child abuse and domestic violence was selected as a North Hawaii community priority in 2000.  Though rates for both reported and confirmed child abuse and neglect in North Hawaii were generally lower than in the County as a whole, North Hawaii rates were higher than the State rates.  Even more disturbing, these rates appear to be increasing rather than decreasing.   It is useful to look at both rates, per 1,000 shown below, and actual number of cases. More recent data is needed, particularly for North Hawaii.

Note:  Trends are similar for reported and confirmed cases of child abuse.  At the time of printing, no data was available on the number of reported cases which were not investigated due to understaffing.

Note:  Child abuse is a critical indicator to improve, in part because victims of child abuse and neglect have significantly more mental illness and chronic diseases and require substantially more support.  Victims of child abuse are also less likely to receive the nurturing necessary for optimal development and health.

A comprehensive, evidence-based collaborative approach is needed to address this complex issue and will ideally include screening of mothers and parents for depression and risk of neglect and abuse. See Vermont’s model and business case for prevention.

This domestic violence data shows actual numbers of arrests.  The number of domestic violence arrests in North Hawaii was lower in 2005 compared to 2004. For comparison to other counties see the State of Hawaii Strategic Plan for the S.T.O.P Violence Against Women Formula Grant 2005 – 2007 at www.cpja.ag.state.hi.us

Currently there are a variety of evidence-based and successful programs for youth development and youth activities in North Hawaii. In other areas of the Big Island, Hilo has an East Hawaii collaboration to reduce child abuse and a Turning Point for Families program and there is an island-wide effort through the Hawaii County Youth Builders.

The Center for Disease Control Community Guide suggests several additional strategies to support healthy youth development.

Implication:  Partnerships between schools and businesses to increase school-based entrepreneurial activities could have strong positive impact.

“Not all that can be counts can be counted and not all that is counted counts"

-Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein reminds us to be cautious when quantifying. This caution is particularly appropriate with children and youth who are far more than their SAT scores.  Over focusing on isolated numbers could easily lead to under focusing on what really counts.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt