Unique Website Offers Facts, Figures About Local Children

Foundation launches www.kidsdata.org to track children’s health and well being in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Feb. 9, 2005

Contact: Eileen Walsh, vice president & director of communications,
(650) 736-2881 or eileen.walsh@lpfch.org

PALO ALTO – The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health today announced the launch of www.kidsdata.org, a unique new website that provides extensive data and related information about the status of children in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, along with news, research articles, and listings of community resources.

Kidsdata.org offers fast access to regularly updated data on children's health and well being, from asthma and weight to school readiness and foster care. The site provides information on dozens of topics, broken out by the 44 cities and 66 school districts that comprise San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Site users can compare data and trends across cities, school districts, and counties, and find some related statewide figures. Users also can customize data by year, locale, ethnicity, age, and more, and view the results as graphs, tables, or maps. The information is drawn from numerous sources, ranging from the state Department of Education to UCLA's California Health Interview Survey.

"Although there are national sites that track indicators of children's health, data on a local level are harder to come by," said Stephen Peeps, president and CEO of the foundation. "Responding to community interest, we have brought together the currently available evidence-based information about children in our communities, and we will continue to expand the site. Our goals are for the data to be used to document the key health and social needs of local children; to bring those issues to the attention of policymakers; and to track progress over time."

Kidsdata not only provides facts and figures, but also explains what each indicator means, why it is important, and how local children are faring currently. Kidsdata provides links to community resources, including local services for children and families, and volunteer opportunities. An online "Reading Room" is available for professionals and parents to review the latest news and research on the topics of their choice.

For more information, log on to www.kidsdata.org

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