NJ Kids Count Rankings: Ocean County among Top Two in Child Health and Safety and Well‐Being;  Falls Short in Education 

Ocean County posted mixed progress, ranking first and second in New Jersey for safety and well‐being
and child health, but was 18th in education, according to the annual New Jersey Kids Count county
profiles and pocket guide released today.

View County Profiles and Ranking

View pocket guide, New Jersey Kids Count 2017: The State of Our Counties

(county-by-county trend data on 40 indicators of child health and well-being)

As New Jersey elects a new governor and legislature this fall, ACNJ encourages voters to use the data proactively and engage with candidates to make kids' issues a part of the conversation. To learn more about the #NJVotes4Kids campaign, please visit njvotes4kids.org.

The rankings, which compare counties on 12 measures of child well‐being, and across four domains –
economics, health, safety and well‐being, and education – provide a closer look at how children are
faring in various parts of the state, often revealing a range of outcomes depending on where they live.
The pocket guide, NJ Kids Count 2017: The State of Our Counties provides county‐by‐county child trend
data across 40 measures of child well‐being.

“Ocean County has the lowest percentage of substantiated or established cases of abuse or neglect and
ranks second in the rate of juvenile arrests. Still, more than 25,000 Ocean County children live in families
struggling to make ends meet,” said Cecilia Zalkind, president and CEO of Advocates for Children New
Jersey, which produces the state Kids Count reports.

Zalkind said that she hopes community leaders can use the data to recognize areas of concern and
target resources to improve the lives of children in their county.

Ocean County Ranks:
16th in Child and Family Economics: For the 138,000 children that call Ocean County home, 19 percent
live in poverty, compared to the state average of 16 percent. Unemployment is 5.2 percent, slightly
above New Jersey’s 5 percent. Ocean County also has a high percentage of rent burdened households
with 58 percent spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

2nd in Child Health: Slightly less than a 24 percent of all Ocean children under age 6 gets a blood lead
test on a given year; that puts the county sixth overall on this measure. The percentage of kids without
health insurance – 3.7 percent, is in line with the state average.

1st in Safety and Well‐Being: The percentage of teens not in school and not working, sometimes
referred to as idle or disconnected youth, is 5 percent, below the state’s average of 6 percent. In
addition, 6.5 percent of reported cases of child abuse or neglect were substantiated or established in
2015, the lowest in the state. Ocean County also saw a dramatic decrease in juvenile arrest rates from
nearly 12.2 in 2011 to 6.7 in 2015.

18th in Education: Slightly higher than the state’s graduation rate of 90 percent, 91 percent of Ocean
County high school students graduate in 4 years. Thirty‐nine percent of low‐income Ocean County
students start the day with school breakfast, placing the county 14th on this indicator. And 13 percent of
students are chronically absent, meaning they miss 10 percent or more of enrolled school days.

In addition to the county profiles and pocket guide, Advocates for Children of New Jersey also released
New Jersey Kids Count 2017: The State of Our Children, in May, which provides state‐level data in all
areas of child well‐being.

To read the reports, visit www.acnj.org.
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KIDS COUNT is a national and state‐by‐state statistical effort to track the state of children in the United
States, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Advocates for Children of New Jersey is a statewide
child research and action organization and the New Jersey Kids Count grantee.