Children's Health

KIDS COUNT, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation (www.kidscount.org) produced a pocket guide focused on the 1.8 million children living along the US-Mexico border. They point out the importance of a focus on children in border counties because state-level analyses of child well-being can mask problems concentrated on the US-Mexico border. They further point out that: (1) the child poverty rate for Latino children on the border (37 percent) is twice the national child poverty rate (17 percent) and that the Latino dropout rate (15 percent) is three times higher than the non-Latino white rate (5 percent) along the border.

Children are an ever-increasing segment of the population due to rapid growth along the Texas-Mexico border resulting in a young population and a relatively high birth rate compared to the state as a whole. The total fertility rate (number of children per woman of reproductive age) was 3.1 in Texas border counties, or 50% higher than the national rate. Raising immunization levels is a critical measure in preventing disease from occurring in children and is one of the highest priorities for the Texas Border Health Foundation.