A report from the Center for Public Policy Priorities shows that 18.8 percent of the children in Freestone county live below the poverty level.

The report was issued Friday as part of the annual Texas Kids Count data book, “The State of Texas Children 2009-2010.”

Data shows that Texas’ approach to the well-being of children is not strengthening families or helping children.

“Decades of belt tightening have left us with more poor, uninsured and hungry children than almost every other state,” Texas Kids Count director Frances Deviney says.

With nearly one in four Texas children living in poverty, Texas’ child poverty rate exceeds most other states—-the United States average is 18 percent.

That means nearly 1.5 million Texas children live in families making less than the federal poverty level, less than $17,600 for a family of three in 2008.

In Freestone county, 765 children live below the poverty level.

High unemployment is a consistent indicator of high child poverty rates. The Texas unemployment rate doubled in the last two years and was 8.3 percent in December.

The unemployment rate in Freestone county was 6.3 percent in December, up from 4.1 percent two years ago.

For the 10th consecutive year, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured children in the country, 20 percent— nearly twice the national average.

This rate is predicted to rise to 24 percent this year.

The number of uninsured children in Freestone county is predicted to be 875 this year, or 18.2 percent.

Increases in the rate of Texas’ uninsured children in 2008 were the largest in families whose income was too high to qualify for public health benefits, but not enough to purchase individual private insurance plans.

Texas faces the second highest rate of childhood insecurity in the country, with 16.3 percent of households unsure where their next meal will come from, or how they will afford it.

In 2007, one of every five children received food stamps, now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

In Freestone county, 786 children, or 17.9 percent, received SNAP. That number has now increased to 1,108.

CPPP is a non-profit, non-partisan policy institute dedicated to improving the economic and social conditions of lowand moderate-income Texans.