By Meredith Gardner
meredith.gardner@theindependent.com

And if that trend continues, local agencies may have to do more to ensure young mothers have the support systems they need, Grand Island human services representatives said.

The rising birth rate among girls ages 10 to 17 was a topic of discussion at the Coffee With Colleagues event Wednesday morning. The breakfast was a meeting of about 30 local social services representatives to talk about the results of the 2007 Kids Count Report from Nebraska's Voices for Children advocacy group.

Some of the most serious cases of abuse and neglect can stem from teen mothers who lack a strong support system, said Sondra Schwehn, director of the Child Advocacy Center in Grand Island.

That means Grand Island must ensure it has the programs to support teen parents, especially if the number of young mothers keeps rising.

According to Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Vital Statistics, the number of teen births in Nebraska went up from 696 in 2004 to 725 in 2005, the most recent data available.

While the number of births among girls ages 10 to 17 is increasing, the birthrate for mothers ages 10 to 19 is decreasing, representatives from Voices for Children said. That is an additional cause of concern, as there are more young girls having children.

Also presented on Wednesday were Public Use Microdata Area statistics regarding children and families. The area that includes Hall and 11 other counties had a child poverty rate of 13.1 percent in 2006, compared to the state rate of 14.1 percent. The overall poverty rate in the area that includes Grand Island was 10.5 percent, also down from the state's rate of 11.5 percent.

The number of employed mothers with children under age 6 was 57.8 percent in the area including Grand Island, compared to 73 percent statewide. That number jumped locally to 82.5 percent when measuring the rate of employment for mothers with children age 18 or younger, compared to the state's overall 66.1 percent.

Nebraska is the top-ranked state in the country for the number of children living in homes with at least one working parent. However, it continues to see the child poverty rate increase, said Annemarie Bailey Fowler, Voices for Children research coordinator.

In the future, it will be important for social service agencies to provide families with support that also gives them incentives to become self-sufficient. Currently, families can get cut off from receiving different types of aid if they begin building their assets. That discourages independence, Bailey Fowler said.

"It's just really not fair to families," she said.