WESTON REED, 10, had come from his fifth-grade classroom to a clinic in the basement at the Edison Elementary School here. Perched on an examining table, he eyed Alison G. Oesterle, a nurse practitioner, warily.%26#8220;Please don%26#8217;t tell me I%26#8217;m going to get a shot,%26#8221; Weston said.Once assured that his checkup did not include any procedures with a needle (Weston was up to date on his immunizations), he chatted happily with Ms. Oesterle. They talked about how many fruits and vegetables he ate each day, what he did for exercise, how often he ate fast food and how well he was sleeping. Around the corner, behind a small screen, Kacy Ortega, 9, was having her teeth cleaned and sealants applied. Kacy and Weston were part of a stream of children visiting the in-school clinic, run by Open Door Family Medical Centers, which provides health and dental care for a population of children who are frequently uninsured and underserved. The two children are among the county%26#8217;s estimated 235,000 children under 18 who are counted in a new analysis of government data that has been put together by the Westchester Children%26#8217;s Association, an advocacy group based in White Plains. The study, %26#8220;Westchester Children: By the Numbers,%26#8221; collected statistics from mostly government sources about local children in the areas of economic security, health, child care, education, child welfare and juvenile justice. Individually, each set of numbers does not add up to much. But looked at collectively, the comprehensive statistical presentation begins to paint a picture of the county%26#8217;s children and their lives. What emerges is a portrait that underscores a diverse and divided county. Most children in the county live comfortably and are well educated. But there are pockets of children living in poverty, lacking easy access to medical care and attending underperforming schools. According to the 2006 American Community Survey, 8.2 percent (19,636) of all Westchester children were living in poverty. The rate for children of a minority race or ethnicity was more than double that. The numbers don%26#8217;t tell the entire story because poverty guidelines are set nationally. To qualify as poor, a family of four would be living on less than $21,200 a year. With Westchester%26#8217;s high cost of living, those dollars are stretched even tighter, the study shows.At the other end, the 2006 American Community Survey also ranked Westchester as having the 13th-highest median family income of any county in the country.%26#8220;The upper income is growing, but the poverty rate is still there,%26#8221; said Cora Greenberg, executive director of the Children%26#8217;s Association. %26#8220;There are certainly lots of middle-income people all over Westchester County. What%26#8217;s surprising is how extreme the ends are.%26#8221; Take children in Port Chester, where Weston and Kacy live. Drawing on data from the 2000 census and the State Department of Education, the report notes that 16 percent of children who live in the village are in families with incomes below the poverty line. Some 14 percent speak English %26#8220;not well%26#8221; or %26#8220;not at all.%26#8221; The median family income is $51,025, and 57 percent are Latino. In 2005, 61 percent of high school students graduated in four years.Across the county, the statistics gathered for the study tell a different story for Chappaqua, in the Town of New Castle. This is where parents recently gathered at the Robert E. Bell Middle School for a presentation by Suniya Luthar, a professor at Columbia University%26#8217;s Teachers College. Her talk was titled %26#8220;Privileged but Pressured: The Risks of Raising Children in Affluent Communities.%26#8221; Parents heard about how affluent children suffer from high rates of depression, anxiety and substance abuse.%26#8220;Material wealth does not imply superior family function,%26#8221; Dr. Luthar told the audience of more than 300 parents crowded into the auditorium. %26#8220;Our kids don%26#8217;t see us as being any more present or nurturing or kind or accessible than kids in the inner city.%26#8221;Here are the numbers for Chappaqua: 5 percent live below the poverty line. Six percent struggle with English. The median family income is $174,579, and 91 percent are white. The four-year graduation rate in Chappaqua was 97 percent in 2005. 1 2 Next Page %26#x00bb;
Tags: executive director, family, parents, poverty line, universi
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