PRESS RELEASE:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA— The Charlottesville/Albemarle Commission on Children and Families (CCF) has issued the tenth edition of Stepping Stones, the annual Charlottesville and Albemarle statistical report on the well-being of local children and families.

Stepping Stones was created in 1999 as a tool to chart the health of children and their families in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County .  Now, ten years later, Stepping Stones includes sufficient longitudinal data to identify positive and negative trends on a growing percentage of the 59 indicators chosen to measure child and family well-being.  Some of these trends are highlighted below.

Stepping Stones is intended to stimulate community dialogue and action regarding regional trends in the Charlottesville / Albemarle community.  For more information on CCF and Stepping Stones please call Gretchen Ellis, CCF Director at 872-4548 or visit our website to view a PDF of the full document: www.ccfinfo.org.

Academic Achievement:

• The percentage of students identified for Special Education has significantly decreased in Albemarle County since 2003.
• The percentage of Grade 3 students who pass English, math, history, and science Standards of Learning tests has significantly increased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999.
• The percentage of Grade 5 students who pass English, math, and science Standards of Learning tests has significantly increased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999.
• The percentage of Grade 8 students who pass English and math Standards of Learning tests has significantly increased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999.

Community Characteristics:

• The number of passenger rides per person on public buses has significantly increased in Charlottesville/Albemarle since 1999.
• There is a possible decreasing trend in the number of passenger rides per person on JAUNT over the past seven years in the City of Charlottesville.
• The percentage of adults registered to vote has significantly increased in Albemarle County since 1999, although there was a slight decrease in 2006 and 2007, the percent increased again last year.  There is a possible increasing trend over the last five years in the percentage of adults registered to vote in the City of Charlottesville.
• The percentage of public school students with Limited English Proficiency who received services has significantly increased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999.

Community Involvement:

• Enrollment in fine arts classes has significantly decreased in the City of Charlottesville since 2002.

Conduct in Community:

• Alcohol arrests for youth under the age of 20 have significantly increased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999, with a slight decrease in the last three years in the City of Charlottesville and last year in Albemarle County.
• Teen pregnancies have significantly decreased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1998 with both localities showing a slight increase last year.
• Births to teens have significantly decreased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999.
• Petitions for Children In Need of Services/Supervision have significantly decreased in Albemarle County since 1999.
• Delinquency judgments of youth ages 10-17 have significantly decreased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999.
• CSA cases for youth ages 10-19 have significantly increased in the City of Charlottesville from 1999-2001, but has been slowly decreasing over the last seven years.
• There is a possible increasing trend over the last eight years in arrests for violent crimes for youth ages 12-17 in Albemarle County.

Discipline in School:

• Reports of physical violence in schools have significantly decreased in Albemarle County since 2001.

Early Childhood Education:

• Enrollment in Subsidized Preschool has increased in Albemarle County since 2001 and decreased in the City of Charlottesville since 2001.
• Children identified for reading intervention services have significantly decreased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1999.

Family Characteristics:

• Divorces have significantly decreased in the City of Charlottesville since 2001.

Family and Community Safety:

• Domestic assault arrests have significantly decreased in the City of Charlottesville since 1999.

Financial Assistance Program Participation:

• There is a increasing trend in the percentage of students receiving free/reduced meals in the City of Charlottesville since 2000.
• Children receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families has significantly decreased in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville since 1998 with a slight increase in Albemarle County last year.

Financial Status:

• While there has been an increase in the average per capita income in the Charlottesville Metropolitan Area since 1998, after adjusting for inflation, the increase is less pronounced, but still significant.

Infant and Early Childhood Health:

There were no trends noted.

School Characteristics:

• The percentage of children entering and withdrawing from school in one school year (community mobility) has significantly decreased in Albemarle County since 1999.
• Instructional personnel positions per student have significantly increased in Albemarle County since 1999.
• There is a possible decreasing trend over the last five years in the percent of children in Public Schools in the City of Charlottesville.

School Participation:

There were no trends noted.

CCF is a 28-member planning board that advises the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on improving outcomes for children and their families.  To view the full report, please visit our website, www.ccfinfo.org, and click “Stepping Stones 2009”.

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