The Challenge
Kids First Foundation acknowledges the great challenge in our society now, post pandemic with an increase in mental health needs such as depression and anxiety, increase in behavioral issues in schools, increase in criminal arrests, and an increase in truancy among children and youth in the schools.
Local Statistics
EDUCATION
64.16% of children of the ages
3-4 throughout the High Desert (8 local school districts) were not in school between the years 2013-2017.
JUVENILE ARRESTS
In the year 2017, 41% of San Bernardino County juvenile arrests were for
felony charges.
In 2017, San Bernardino County's most vulnerable children, birth through five, had 14.1 substantiated child abuse allegations per 1,000 children, compared to California's rate of 11.0 Per 1,000 children.
CHILD ABUSE
MENTAL HEALTH
Over the past five years, mental health care for children in San Bernardino County ages 0-5 has had an increase by 145% in five years
20+%
of the 939 CHILDREN between the
AGES of BIRTH TO FIVE years old served by the Desert/Mountain Children's Center had an
ACE SCORE OF 6 OR MORE.
20 YEARS
Children who have been reported to have an ACE score of 6 or more have an AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY TWO DECADES SHORTER than those who reported none.
6.2
per 1,000 births was the Infant Mortality Rate in San Bernardino County in the year 2019.
Impact our community.
Intervening early is critical, given that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 3/4 by the age 24. Research has shown that early identification and treatment improves outcomes.
Early intervention conducted by comprehensive school-based mental health and substance treatment systems have been associated with enhanced academic performance, decreased need for special education, fewer disciplinary encounters, increased engagement with school, and elevated rates of graduation.
