Annie E. Casey Foundation releases its 2007 Kids Count Data Book

It's not great news for Arkansas. For the 2nd year in a row, we're ranked 45th among all states in terms of the well-being of children. The states below us are South Carolina, New Mexico, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The report is based on data from 2004-05 and shows that improvement by Arkansas in a few areas, while small decreases were seen in infant mortality and teen death rates. Larger reductions were made in the teen birth rate, the percent of high school dropouts and the percent of teens not attending school and not working.

Here's the news release, and here are articles from Arkansas media outlets:

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas News Bureau
Associated Press

Additionally, here's a comparison by the Associated Press detailing how Arkansas children fared nationally.