The number of children growing up poor in Hawaii has continued to climb, with the families of about 1 in 6 keiki living in poverty, according to new data from the University of Hawaii Center on the Family.

Some 51,000 children in Hawaii — or 17 percent of the under-18 population — were in families with incomes below the $22,811 federal poverty line for a four-person household in 2011.

That is up from 12.5 percent under the poverty line in 2005, according to the 2013 Kids Count report being released today.

The increase is especially concerning, officials say, because an impoverished childhood puts kids at greater risk of teen pregnancy, failure to graduate from high school, poor health and lack of secure employment later in life.

"When you have those poor economic conditions in childhood, it has ramifications for childhood well-being throughout their development," said Ivette Rodriguez Stern, a junior specialist at the Center on the Family.

Local advocacy groups say more needs to be done to highlight the struggles facing disadvantaged children and direct the needed resources to help lift families out of poverty and increase the odds of success for all children.

The national report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates for a better future for children from disadvantaged families, generally compared the most recent data available (mostly from 2011) with 2005 figures in an effort to compare pre- and post-recession conditions.

Stern said Hawaii’s families are still feeling the lingering effects of the recession.

"Two, three years out of the recession, we’re still seeing the effects on the economic well-being of Hawaii’s children," said Stern, whose center is the Hawaii grantee for the annual report.

Nationally, 23 percent of a state’s young population, on average, lived in poverty, up from an average of 19 percent in 2005. The rate of child poverty for 2011 ranged from a low of 12 percent inNew Hampshire to a high of 32 percent inMississippi.

"The risks posed by economic hardship are greatest among children who experience poverty when they are young and among children who experience persistent and deep poverty," the authors of the national Kids Count report wrote. "Growing up in poverty is one of the greatest threats to healthy child development. Poverty and financial stress can impede children’s cognitive development and their ability to learn. It can contribute to behavioral, social and emotional problems and poor health."

The number of Hawaii families receiving welfare cash benefits and food stamp benefits also has gone up in recent years.

The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program helped put food on the table for some 90,500 Hawaii families each month in fiscal year 2012, with about 40 percent of recipients under age 18. The program benefited 63 percent more residents in 2011 than in 2005, at a cost of $401 million, according to state Department of Human Services data.

Norm Baker, chief operating officer of Aloha United Way, said that as more and more families struggle financially, homelessness becomes a visible indicator of their hardship.

"The ultimate outcome to all of these things, and the most visible, is homeless families," Baker said of the Kids Count data. "Of all the homeless on Oahu, more than half are families."

As the state’s largest fundraising organization, Aloha United Way partners with more than 300 nonprofit service providers, many of them health and human services organizations that help low-income children and families. He said AUW raised $12 million last year.

"A real issue is the resources available in the community to help address these problems," he said. "The majority comes from government contracts — federal or federal through the state — and those dollars, ever since 2008, have been cut and cut and cut."

Victor Geminiani, executive director of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, also acknowledged the impact the recession is having. But, he said "the issue we have is more structural than just the recession. We have economic barriers that affect everyone in the state but hurt our poor the most."

He said the combination of the state’s high cost of living and shelter, regressive general excise tax and low wages hurt Hawaii’s poorest populations.

"When you’re a rent check away from homelessness, it changes your outlook on life, especially when you have children," Geminiani said.

He said the center was created to advocate on behalf of low-income individuals and families on issues of statewide importance, including homelessness, education and health. The center supported legislation during this year’s session aimed at putting more income in the pockets of those living in poverty.

The report stressed the need to assist parents, as well, saying that "early childhood strategies alone will not successfully reduce disparities among children; we must also assist their parents."

In addition to economic factors, the Kids Count report also looked at indicators in the areas of education, health and family and community resources for children.

Overall, Hawaii ranked 25th in the nation for the well-being of children, down one spot from last year.

"We’re kind of lingering in the middle," Stern said.

It’s important, she said, that Hawaii continue to invest in things like early childhood development programs and early education to promote healthy childhoods and help kids build a strong foundation.

"With the state’s move now to try to provide universal preschool and improve early childhood education, it’s especially important to focus on that now," said Center on the Family’s Stern.

Nearly half of the state’s 3- and 4-year-olds didn’t attend preschool in 2009-2011, the report found.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie advocated for a statewide preschool program during the legislative session. Hawaii is one of 11 states without state-funded preschool.

Voters will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment next year allowing public money to be spent on private early-education programs.

Lawmakers deferred or watered down the other components of Abercrombie’s early-education initiative but did appropriate funds to subsidize the cost of preschool in 2014 for 900 low-income 4-year-olds.

Deborah Zysman, executive director of the Good Beginnings Alliance, said there needs to be more advocating on behalf of Hawaii’s kids.

"From the data, what we see is, in general, things are getting worse for our kids, and that’s very concerning to us because kids in poverty are starting life behind," Zysman said.

"We need to be collectively coming together to do more. From our perspective it really is about narrowing those gaps — access to health care, access to early education opportunities — to level the playing field for our kids. On our side we’re trying to rally partners in the community, in business and government to demand it.

"We’re trying to bring people to the table who care about our kids and who are willing to stand up," she said. "That’s when we’ll start seeing changes in the data."

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