PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island lost ground on child poverty last year, when the statewide rate was the 20th lowest nationwide according to a report this afternoon by Rhode Island Kids Count. In this year’s analysis, the Ocean State fell three notches from its 17th-place finish in 2006 but remained 15 places above the previous year’s 35th-place finish.

“Poverty is related to every area of child well-being,” Elizabeth Burke Bryant, the local policy group’s executive director, said in a statement accompanying the report. “It is critical that, as a state and as a nation, we ensure that parents have the education, skills and opportunities to have jobs that pay enough to support their families.”

The Kids Count report is based on data from the 2007 American Community Survey that were released this morning by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of the Census.

The number of Ocean State children living at or below the federal poverty threshold – last year, $16,705 per year for a family of three – rose 14.14 percent compared with 2006 to 40,468 children statewide, Kids Count said. The number in extreme poverty rose to 17,697.

Rhode Island’s child poverty rate worsened to 17.5 percent last year, after improving to 15.1 percent in 2006 (READ MORE), Kids Count said. But it remained significantly better than the state’s 2005 rate of 19.5 percent.

The portion of Ocean State children living in extreme poverty – with a household income no more than half the federal poverty level (last year, $8,353 for a family of three) – worsened to 7.6 percent last year from 6.5 percent in 2006 but remained above the state’s 10-percent rate in 2005.

Nationwide, the poverty rate among children younger than 18 continued to decline, dipping to 18 percent last year from the previous year’s 18.3 percent and 2005’s 18.5 percent. The child poverty rate in Massachusetts worsened to 12.9 percent last year from 12.4 percent in 2006, and Connecticut saw its rate edge up to 11.1 percent from the previous year’s 11.0 percent.

“While almost half of Rhode Island children living in poverty are white, children of color are far more likely to live below the federal poverty level,” Kids Count noted.

The poverty rate among black children continued to improve – to 26 percent last year from 36 percent in 2006 and 53 percent in 2005 – although rates for other ethnic groups worsened in 2007. Last year, poverty affected 42 percent of Hispanic children statewide, up from 36 percent in 2006; 29 percent of Asian children; and 12 percent of white children, up from 9 percent in 2006.

“We know what works to ameliorate the worst effects of poverty,” Burke Bryant said. “Continued state and federal investments in health care, child care and early education are critical to healthy child development.”

In health insurance, Rhode Island was No. 11 last year, despite state and federal budget cuts that diminished coverage, the group found.

The percentage of Rhode Island children who were uninsured rose to 6.9 percent in the three-year period from 2005 to 2007, compared with the statewide rate of 6.4 percent in 2004-2006 period and 5.5 percent in 2002-2004, the policy group found.

Nationwide, the share of children who lacked insurance worsened to 11.2 percent in 2005-2007 from 11.0 percent in 2004-2006.

Massachusetts was No. 1 for the 2005-2007 period, with an uninsured rate of only 4.7 percent – news that Joe Landolfi, spokesman for Mass. Gov. Deval L. Patrick heralded as “another indication of the tremendous success of health care reform” in the Bay State; “survey after survey continues to demonstrate that more Massachusetts residents are enrolling in health insurance plans, giving them access to primary and preventative care and avoiding more costly treatment down the road,” Landolfi said – while Connecticut was No. 6, with a 6.3-percent rate.

“Much of Rhode Island’s success in increasing access to health insurance and comprehensive health care for children is due to RIte Care, Rhode Island’s Medicaid managed care program for low-income working families that covers about one-third of Rhode Island’s children,” Kids Count said.

Statewide, 166,000 children were covered by employer-provided and other private health insurance in 2007, while 71,000 were covered by government programs including RIte Care, Medicaid, Medicare and military insurance.

“While the majority of children in Rhode Island have health coverage through their parents’ employer, RIte Care plays an important role in making sure that families who can’t access affordable insurance through employers can get the coverage that they need to grow, learn and be healthy,” Burke Bryant said.

“Rhode Island has long been a leader in children’s health insurance coverage … [and] RIte Care has been a nationally recognized policy success story,” she noted. “Protecting our long-term investment in RIte Care is crucial, so that we can make sure that all kids in Rhode Island have the health care they need.”

Rhode Island Kids Count is a statewide nonprofit that works to improve the health, economic well-being, safety, education and development of Rhode Island children. It is an affiliate of Baltimore-based Kids Count, a project of The Annie E. Casey Foundation. To learn more, visit www.RIKidsCount.org.

Additional information from the 2007 American Community Survey – including today’s report, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007” – is available from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of the Census at www.census.gov.