“Our projections show that virtually all the progress made in family economic well-being since 1975 will be wiped out,”

via Recession threatens U.S. progress in child wellbeing | U.S. | Reuters.

Report: 1 in 50 U.S. children face homelessness – CNN.com
The report, by the National Center on Family Homelessness, analyzed data from 2005-06 and found that more than 1.5 million children were without a home.

“These numbers will grow as home foreclosures continue to rise,” Ellen Bassuk, president of the center, said in a statement.

The study ranked states on their performance in four areas: the extent of child homelessness, the risk for it, child well-being and the states policy and planning efforts.

The states that fared the poorest were Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana.

Connecticut, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island and North Dakota performed the best.

With President Bush no longer around to veto it, the Senate has ”overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. … The House approved similar legislation on Jan. 14, and President Obama is expected to sign a final version as early as next week.”

Senate Passes Health Legislation for Low-Income Children (Finally!) | Health and Wellness | AlterNet

Associated Press: Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year’s sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported. The department’s annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than 50 percent above the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998. Overall, the 36.2 million adults and children who struggled with hunger during the year was up slightly from 35.5 million in 2006. That was 12.2 percent of Americans who didn’t have the money or assistance to get enough food to maintain active, healthy lives.

News from The Associated Press