The CPC Approach
Our Guiding Questions:
1. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CHILDREN?
- Over one-quarter of the county's residents (2.7 million) are children under the age of 18; 58% are Latino, 20% are White, 10% are African American, 9% are Asian and 1% are American Indian/Alaskan Native
- There are about 160,000 live births each year-62% are Latino, 19% are White, 9% are African American, 9% are Asian and .2% are American Indian
- One in four (640,145) children lives in a family whose income is under the poverty level, including 30% of all Latino children and 33% of all African American children
- One in four lives in a single parent family
- One in five does not have health insurance
- Almost a million children (941,789) receive some kind of public assistance from county government
2. WHERE IS THE MONEY TO FUND CHILDREN AND FAMILIES?
Schools
LAUSD is the second largest district in the country with about half of all public school children, while the others attend schools in 80 other districts. (Altogether the 81 districts operate about 1,700 schools. About 10% of children attend parochial or independent schools.)
Total budget for schools - about $12 billion annually
County government
About one-quarter of the county's budget goes to fund over 200 programs for children and families managed by 24 different county departments.
Total budget for county departments - $3.6 billion annually.
(The most significant county expenditures are: $1.5 billion for income support (welfare), $1.1 for child protective services, $290 million for child health services, $206 million for probation services, $121 million for child mental health services and $88 million for child care.)
Cities
The 88 cities in the county devote much smaller amounts of their budgets to services for children and families. (For example, the City of Los Angeles spends less than 10% of its budget on services directed to children and families.)
Estimated total expenditures of cities - about $1.3 billion annually
TOTAL
Taken together, we are spending about $18 billion dollars annually on services for children and families in Los Angeles County -- with what results?
3. WHAT ARE THE RESULTS WE WANT FOR CHILDREN?
WHAT ARE THE TRENDS?
Good health
Births to teens are decreasing (from 19.6 per 1000 in 1993 to 16.9 in 1996)
Infant deaths are decreasing (from 7.3 per 1000 births in 1993 to 5.9 in 1996)
Immunizations at age two are increasing (from 39% in 1993 to 56% in 1997)
Safety and survival
Arrests for violent felonies are decreasing (from 7866 in 1993 to 7297 in 1996)
Deaths by homicide are decreasing (from 10.2 per 100,000 in 1993 to 8.0 in 1996)
Economic well-being
School lunch enrollment has increased (from 54% in 1993 to 59% in 1997)
Social and emotional well-being
Children served by Mental Health Department increased (from 16,946 in 1993 to 22,031 in 1997)
Education and work force readiness
Special education has increased (from 139,675 in 1993 to 158,207 in 1997)
High school graduation rate has remained stable at 62% since 1993
Number of graduates with academic courses needed for UC admission has increased from 35% in 1993 to 40% in 1997
THE BOTTOM LINE
While some trends are getting better, our $18 billion dollar annual investment should be reaping better results. Working together - across institutions and with communities - we can and must better understand what families and communities need and want, in order to improve our extremely fragmented service delivery system. The Children's Planning Council is dedicated to forging these critical partnerships to improve results for the children, families, and communities of Los Angeles.
