Report: 1 million more kids in poverty

More than 1 million additional children fell into poverty last year over the year before, according to a census report that also highlighted poverty's potential to adversely affect a child's educational achievement.

Just over one in five of the nation's children under age 18 -- 15.75 million, or 21.6 percent -- lived in poverty in 2010, according to estimates from the 2009 and 2010 American Community Survey. That's the highest poverty rate since the Census Bureau began conducting the survey in 2001, the report said. And between 2009 -- when 14.7 million, or 20 percent of the nation's children lived in poverty -- and 2010, about 1.1 million more children entered poverty.

The census report focused on national and state poverty figures. But according to the 2010 American Community Survey, on Long Island, the child poverty rate in 2010 was 7.6 percent in Nassau and 7 percent in Suffolk. For black and Hispanic children on the Island, the poverty rate was 14.2 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively; and for non-Hispanic white and Asian children, 3.6 percent, and 6.6 percent.

But given the region's high costs and the "antiquated" federal measure that puts the poverty line at about $22,000 for a family of four, poverty here was no doubt higher, said Gwen O'Shea, president and chief executive of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, an umbrella group representing nonprofit human service agencies.

She said the numbers should be cause for alarm -- and a call to action.

"There's no reason in this nation why we're seeing the highest percentage of children in poverty ever," O'Shea said.

"This is not a new issue. We know the ways to address it, and society hasn't done it," she said, citing a growing disparity between socioeconomic classes.

The data showed that black and Hispanic children had far higher poverty rates than white and Asian children. Nationally, the poverty rate in 2010 for black children was 38.2 percent, and for Hispanic children 32.3 percent, compared with 17 percent for white and 13 percent for Asian children.

New York State's child poverty rate in 2010 was 21.2 percent, or about 900,630 children. That's up from 20 percent, or about 868,350 children, in 2009. The poverty rate for black and Hispanic children in the state was 33.3 percent and 33.9 percent, respectively.

The census report cited expert research that showed "children in poverty, especially young children, are more likely than their peers to have cognitive and behavioral difficulties, [and] to complete fewer years of education." The child poverty rate can point out groups whose "most basic economic needs remain unmet."

"Poverty is one of the biggest factors in having children not able to perform along with their [more] advantaged peers when they get to kindergarten," said Debrah Garcia, chief executive of Long Island Head Start, a school readiness program for disadvantaged children ages 3 to 5.

She said Head Start also provides other support services to help disadvantaged families, ranging from nutrition to mental health programs.

But a clinical child psychologist who also teaches at Hofstra University cautioned that a child's poverty status doesn't have to inhibit his or her development. "It's very much dependent on the parents' ability to handle the stresses and limited resources of poverty," said Phyllis Ohr.