Child abuse and neglect¹

• 256,492 hotline calls were placed in suspicion of child abuse or neglect in Illinois in fiscal year 2010. The following new cases were confirmed:
  
• 29,619 cases of child abuse or neglect 
• 1,817 cases of sex abuse
• 470 substance exposed infants
• 48 child deaths
• 15,448 Illinois children lived outside of their primary home in fiscal year 2010.

Poverty

• There were 24,968 unaccompanied homeless youth up to age 21 in Illinois in 2004².
• 36% were in Chicago/Cook County

• As many as 20-40% of homeless youth in Illinois identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender³.
• 7% of children in Lake County live in poverty.⁴
• 21.9% of Lake County residents spend more than half their income on housing costs.⁵
• Approximately 30% of Lake County's population is either uninsured or underinsured.⁶
  

Teen pregnancy⁷

• In 2003, 17,670 (9.7%) of births were to girls 19 years of age or younger.
• 36% of births were to African-American teens
• 32% were to White teens
• 31% were to Hispanic teens

• The birth rate for girls in foster care (17.2%) is more than double the rate of their peers outside the foster care system (8.2%).⁸
• In a study of youth transitioning out of foster care in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, 33% of the girls were found to have been pregnant by age 17. Nearly half had been pregnant by age 19.⁹
  

High school dropout rate

• In Illinois in 2005-06, 24,983 students dropped out of high school¹⁰.
• Lake County has a high school dropout rate of 8.1%.¹¹
  

Violence

• From 1999 to 2006, 3,369 children and youth were killed by guns in Illinois¹².
• In 2008, more than 50% of homicide victims in Chicago were under the age of 25¹³.
• In the school year 2008-09, 34 Chicago Public School students were killed and another 290 shot on the streets¹⁴.
• Firearms are the second leading cause of injury death for young people in Illinois following traffic fatalities¹⁵. 
• Youth in Chicago are ten times more likely to die from firearm homicide than Illinois youth who live outside Cook County¹⁶.
  
• The majority (60%) of youth violent deaths recorded in Illinois in 2005 were committed using a firearm¹⁷.
• UCAN's national Teen Gun Survey 2009 reported that 26% of teens claim to know someone who has been shot while 28% say they know a young person who has threatened to kill someone with a gun. 34% of teens say they could get a handgun if they really wanted to, including 46% of 16-18 year old males¹⁸.
• In any given year in Illinois, suicide is either the 2nd or 3rd leading cause of death for adolescents.  39% of suicides are by firearm.¹⁹
• The state of Illinois has 4-6 gang members for every 1 law enforcement officer.²⁰
• More than 5,800 gangs with approximately 222,400 members are active in the Central Region of the United States.  Cook County has more gang members than any other county.²¹
  

Incarceration²²

• In fiscal year 2005, 2,771 juveniles were admitted to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
• The recidivism rate for juveniles in fiscal year 2005 was 48%.
• There were 1,434 juveniles in locked juvenile facilities and 2,130 on parole in fiscal year 2005.
  

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¹Illinois Department of Children & Family Services Executive Statistical Summary June 2010
²UIC "Unaccompanied Homeless Youth in Illinois" 2005
³National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Illinois Fact Sheet
⁴Heartland Alliance and Northern Illinois Food Bank
⁵US Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey
⁶Lake County Health Department
⁷Illinois Department of Public Health, news release March 8, 2005
⁸National Casey Alumni Study, "Assessing the effects of foster care: Early results from the Casey National Alumni Study," 2003
⁹Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, "Midwest evaluation of the adult functioning of former foster youth", 2003
¹⁰National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics
¹¹Illinois State Board of Education, 2007 Report Card
¹²Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, WISQARS Injury Mortality Rates 1999-2006
¹³Chicago Police Department Crime Summary 2008
¹⁴Chicago Tribune, "Chicago Public Schools announce plan to combat violence" September 4, 2009
^15-17Children's Memorial Research Center, IVDRS, newsletter June 2008
¹⁸UCAN Teen Gun Survey 2009
¹⁹2007 Illinois Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan, Illinois Dept. of Public Health
^20-21National Gang Threat Assessment, 2009, National Drug Intelligence Center
²²Illinois Department of Corrections June 2005