America's Forgotten Children: Child Poverty in Rural America.

This report draws on research, statistics, and the voices of rural young people to document the extent and causes of rural child poverty, and related problems and reasons for hope in specific focus areas. About 2.5 million rural children are chronically poor. Rural poverty is concentrated in central Appalachia, the deep South, the U.S.-Mexican border, the Southwest, the central valley of California, and American Indian reservations in the Northern Plains. Child poverty is greater in rural America than in urban areas, and for different reasons. The education provided poor rural children is often inadequate and substandard; child and youth development opportunities are limited; rural children do not receive adequate health care; poor rural communities lack basic services; wages in rural areas do not lift families out of poverty; and rural jobs are less likely to offer benefits. Government funding has been directed more toward helping poor rural families survive, day-to-day, than toward creating strong community institutions that provide good physical and mental health care, education, and positive growth and development. Policy recommendations for alleviating rural poverty focus on building human capital in rural areas by providing incentives to retain educated and skilled youth and adults, training rural people, and recruiting people with the skills needed to serve children; building and supporting comprehensive community centers; strengthening the economic self-sufficiency of rural families; and finding new ways to target public and private investments specifically for poor rural children. Appendices contain references in end notes, data sources and definitions, and members of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Rural Child Poverty. (TD)