Douglas County is holding steady in providing services for children, according to a report released Friday.

The annual Children’s Report Card, compiled by Kansas Action for Children Inc. and the Partnership for Children and Youth, gives the county a B when it comes to addressing children’s issues. It was the same grade the county received a year ago, and the same grade Kansas received when the overall state report card was released last month.

“This is good news,” said Rod Bremby, state secretary of health and environment. “It shows Lawrence and Douglas County has provided some results that are enviable across the state. But there’s lots of work to be done.”

The report card, in its fifth year, was unveiled Friday morning during an event at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds. U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat from Lenexa, was among the 50 attendees.

The report card used 17 indicators to grade performance in five categories:

• Safety and security: C-plus
• Health: B-plus
• Education: A-minus
• Teen years: B-minus


Heather Zaman, 8, left, plays Connect Four with Boys & Girls Club staffer Sandra Myers at the Lawrence Boys & Girls Club, 1520 Haskell Ave. Heather was among the children at the club Friday for after-school activities. In the annual Children's Report Card, Douglas County received a B for its services for children. Secretary of Health and Environment Rod Bremby listed increased support for Boys & Girls Clubs among the most pressing needs for children.

The fifth category, child care, had incomplete data for 2003.

Two of the areas — safety and security and health — held steady from a year ago. Education and teen years dropped slightly, from A and B, respectively.

The county’s scores were better than the overall state scores in two areas, health and teen years. They lagged slightly in the areas of safety and security and education.

The report card cited several areas of concern for Douglas County children:

• The percent of children qualified for free school meals increased from 17.2 percent to 18.6 percent during the 2002-2003 school year.
• Average ACT scores for students in the county decreased from 23.2 to 22.7 between 2001 and 2003.
• The percentage of teens using marijuana has grown from 12.9 percent in 1999 to 16.5 percent in 2003.

Bremby, who lives in Lawrence, said he ranked better state immunizations, adequate funding for education and increased support for programs such as Boys & Girls Clubs among the most pressing needs for children.

“Things are very good here in Douglas County,” he said. “Things can be better. We must continue to maintain the same level of funding for these programs or increase funding, or the grades can start to go the other way quickly.”

Jody Johnson, board member for Lawrence-Douglas County Promise, a consortium of agencies that provide services for children, said the report card was a reminder that improving the lives of children would take a group effort.

Lawrence Douglas-County Promise focuses on five areas: providing caring adults for children to interact with, providing safe places for children to be away from school, providing health information, giving students marketable skills for the work force and encouraging them to provide service to the community.

“One of our goals for the next year will be to create a community checklist, to assess how we’re doing in those five promise areas, where the gaps are and where we need improvement,” Johnson said.