With an increase of 2 percentage points in one year, one in five children lives in poverty in California. That’s the highest proportion in a decade and is equal to the national average, according to Kids Count, an extensive report on the state of children in America by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In California, 29 percent of African-American and 28 percent of Hispanic children live in poverty.

The latest state data, mostly for 2009, shows increasing numbers of families living on the edge, with 7 percent of families experiencing the disruption of a mortgage foreclosure, compared with 4 percent nationwide, and 34 percent of children living in families where no parent has a year-round full-time employment (51 percent of African-American children).

Despite the economic turmoil, California also improved on several of the 26 measures of child welfare, so that California’s ranking improved to 16th among the states, up from 19th in 2010. There were fewer teen birth, teen deaths and a big drop – down nearly 30,000 to 113, 000 – in the number of teens ages 16-19 not in school.

The latest data don’t include the impact of the last two years of state budget cuts to health care, education and child care, which will leave more kids vulnerable.

However, some highlights:

• 92 percent of children had continuous health care coverage in 2009;
• 73 percent of children ages 3-5 do not attend a nursery school or preschool;
• 24 percent of female-headed households receive child support, compared with 28 percent in 2004.

The report includes breakdowns by county for most of the indexes.