This document discusses poverty among children in the United States. It states that over 16 million children live in poverty, often in working families, and that growing up in poverty has negative long-term effects on children's health, development, education, and future earnings potential. Specifically, children in poverty are more likely to experience developmental delays, drop out of high school, and remain impoverished as adults. The document argues that reducing child poverty would save the US hundreds of billions of dollars per year and benefit society overall.

2. What is poverty?

3. Who is Affected?
0 The children are less healthy, trail in emotional and intellectual
development, and
0 are less likely to graduate from high school.
THE
CHILDREN,
They are our
future and they
are more likely to
continue living in
poverty as they
grow older.

4. Rate of Children in Poverty
0More than 16.1 million children in America are
poor, but they live in working families

5. Overtime Cost
0 Every year that we keep children in poverty costs our
nation half a trillion dollars in lost productivity,
poorer health and increased crime

6. Drop Out
Rate
• Children living in poverty have a higher number of absenteeism or leave
school all together because they are more likely to have to work or care
for family members.
• Dropout rates of 16 to 24-year-old students who come from low income
families are seven times more likely to drop out than those from families
with higher incomes.
• A higher percentage of young adults (31 percent) without a high school
diploma live in poverty, compared to the 24 percent of young people who
finished high school.

7. Poverty line
0According to the 2011 U.S. Census Bureau, it is a family of four
(two adults, two children under 18) that earns less than
$23,021.The basic-needs budget for a U.S. family of 4 is $31,080
(rural Nebraska) to $64,656 (Boston, Massachusetts)
• Children that live below the poverty line are 1.3 times more
likely to have developmental delays or learning disabilities
than those who don’t live in poverty.

8. Education
Trends
• 40 percent of children living in poverty aren’t
prepared for primary schooling.
• Children living in poverty have a higher number of
absenteeism or leave school all together because they
are more likely to have to work or care for family
members.
• Dropout rates of 16 to 24-year-old students who come
from low income families are seven times more likely
to drop out than those from families with higher
incomes.

9. School
Readiness
0 School readiness reflects a child’s ability to succeed
both academically and socially in a school environment.
It requires physical well-being and appropriate motor
development, emotional health and a positive approach
to new experiences, age-appropriate social knowledge
and competence, age-appropriate language skills, and
age-appropriate general knowledge and cognitive skills

10. Why the
Gap?
• There are differences in attitudes and aspirations between higher and lower
income families, but little evidence that these are a main factor driving
attainment.
• Aspirations tend to be high across all groups. When children are born, 97 per
cent of mothers in low-income families want them to attend university.
• The key differences are in how likely parents and children think it is that they
will be able to fulfil their goals, and in their knowledge and opportunities to
do so.
• Analysis of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children suggested
that the gap in attainment between children from the poorest and richest
backgrounds, already large at age five, grew particularly fast during the
primary school years. By age eleven, only around three-quarters of children
from the poorest fifth of families reached the expected level at Key Stage 2,
compared with 97 per cent of children from the richest fifth.

11. Can Change Happen?
YES!
According to Kofi Annan she believed that we should:
“Work in
partnerships
between rich and
poor to improve
the opportunities
of all human
beings to build
better lives."