RALEIGH - North Carolina is ranked 35th in the nation for overall child wellbeing, according to a recent report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report uses 2011 statistics, which show that one in four North Carolina children live below the national poverty line.

Laura Speer, with Annie E. Casey Foundation, says that many families were affected by the high unemployment rate. “34 percent of children in North Carolina…had a parent who didn’t have secure employment.” Speer also said that 10 percent of teenagers were not in school and not working.

Speer says the recession is to blame for many of these low ratings. “We are still feeling the impacts of the recession for kids and families. And we still are not really able to see… [if] the economic recovery we are experiencing at the national level is really going to trickle down to kids.”

Despite harsh economic conditions, Speer says that education is improving in North Carolina and that more families have health insurance coverage nationwide than before.