The bad economy may have pushed more of the nation's children into poverty, according to a report released today by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
During the onset of the recession, as parents began to lose their jobs, the poverty level began to climb, according to the report.
In 2008, 1 in 5 children lived in poverty, the highest rate in a decade, according to the report. About 8 percent of children lived in extreme poverty, which means their families had an income less than one-half of the poverty threshold.
The federal interagency forum is a group of 22 agencies that collect, analyze and report data on issues dealing with families and children.
The poverty numbers are important because a child's economic conditions affect their health and development, according to the report. For instance, families of children living in poverty are also having problems providing healthy foods, putting their children's nutritional needs at risk. About 52 percent of children living in poverty lived in "food-insecure households."
Despite the findings, the lives of the nation's children did improve in some ways. More children had health insurance and adolescent births declined. Eighth-grade math and reading scores also improved.