| Problem | Components |
|---|---|
| Policy issue area: | Society |
| Policy issue: | Children |
| Description: | Large number of children are denied families, parenting, health care, mental health services and appropriate education. |
| Symptoms: | 15 million children are poor (25% of total); 1 out of 6 children get insufficient health care; licensed child care exists only for about 15% of parents in need of service; child abuse is rising due to economic and social stress (almost 2 million cases per year); accidents, homicide and suicide are leading cause of death among teenagers -- caused in part by crime and drug abuse; hundreds of thousands teenagers are runaways. |
| Causes: | Budgetary cutbacks in social programs; life-style changes; lack of a National Children's Policy. |
| Cost of problem: | - |
| Solution | Components |
| Resources: | Federal and state governments; concerned organizations; business and industry. |
| Goal: | 1. Secure the welfare of children through the preservation and improvement of the
social institutions of the family and the local educational systems 2. Provide a coordinated set of Federal/local government level social programs for assuring the welfare of children. |
| Program area: | Human resources development |
| Program-remedy: | 1. Educational, job training and child care programs for single mothers -- including
child care tax credits to businesses and families 2. Provide better access to comprehensive prenatal care and infant health care and nutrition 3. Provide adequate nutrition for women, infants and children 4. National child care program, administered on the local government level 5. Enforce child support payments. |
| Program-prevent: | National Children's Policy. |
| Cost of program: | - |
| Beneficiaries: | Children; families; business and industry; future senior citizens. |