Today the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its yearly study, called the Kids Count report, detaling every state’s progress in providing for youth.

The report indicates Tennessee has made significant improvements in curbing its infant mortality and high school dropout rates. Despite improvements, however, the report shows Tennessee is still ranked 43rd overall in the United States. Tennessee continues to score low nationally in teen mortality rates and children living in single-parent families.

The Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth Among says that one of the most pressing issues facing Tennessee is finding permanent homes for youth in foster care. Former foster-care youth Simone Moore and Sierra Baker spoke today of what “permanency” means to them.

“Permanency to me is having a lifelong connection with someone – someone that will be there when you get married or have kids. Permanency is finding a forever family – someone to call in the middle of the night when you just need to talk.”

When a child reaches the age of 18, they are no longer required to remain in foster care. In a comparison of ten other states with similar populations, Tennessee has the highest rate of children who aged out of foster care without having a permanent family.

In remarks made by the Department of Children Services Commissioner Viola Miller, she says that the goal will be to have no child age out of foster care without a permanent connection to a family.

Web Extra:

WPLN’s Multistate Comparison of Kids Count Data is below

10 State Comparision of Foster Care Statistics (source: 2007 Kids Count Data Book)

State	Number of Children per 1000 in foster care	Children under age 18 in foster care at any time in the year 2004	Children above age 11 in foster care at any time in the year 2004	Children who aged out of foster care without having a permanent family: 2004	Children under age 11 in foster care	% of children over 11 in state foster care
Tennessee	9	13,013	7,876	735	5,137	60.52%
Washington	10	14,836	5,396	357	9,440	36.37%
Indiana	9	14,383	5,549	312	8,834	38.58%
Massachusetts	11	16,746	10,772	731	5,974	64.33%
Virgina	5	8,905	5,429	586	3,476	60.97%
North Carolina	7	14,441	6,142	389	8,299	42.53%
Missouri	12	16,206	7,883	329	8,323	48.64%
Wisconsin	10	12,718	6,822	475	5,896	53.64%
Maryland	9	12,459	7,553	361	4,906	60.62%
Arizona	9	13,315	5,140	453	8,175	38.60%
Average	9.1	13,702	6,856	472.8	6,846	50.48%