School officials say poverty count is too low

YAKIMA, Wash. -- New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show the Granger and Sunnyside school districts have the highest percentages of children living in poverty in the Yakima Valley.

Granger tops the list. Sunnyside follows. So do Mabton and Toppenish.

But, according to district officials, the numbers seem too low.

"All you have to do is walk through town and walk through our schools to see the needs of our children," said Jeanette Ozuna, director of federal and special programs for the Toppenish School District.

The latest census estimates put the percentage of children living in poverty in the district at about 28.4 percent.

"I think that number is extremely inaccurate," Ozuna said. "It's very surprising."

The 2008 tabulations, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and part of the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program, were released last week.

The estimates provide income and poverty information for each of the nation's 3,142 counties and the nearly 14,000 school districts that qualify for federal Title I funding, which is aimed at improving the academic achievement of disadvantaged students.

The numbers help the U.S. Department of Education implement terms of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act and are used as one of the criteria to allot federal funds to local jurisdictions. No Child Left Behind added more requirements for schools and districts to continue to receive federal dollars. Provisions included everything from test scores to teacher qualifications.

State and local programs also use the estimates for allocating funds and managing school programs.

But the percentages of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch programs might be a better indicator, according to administrators.

Income guidelines for free or reduced lunch programs vary depending on household size. This academic year, to qualify for the free lunch program, a household of four would need to make $28,665 or less per year. A household of the same size would need to make $40,793 or less per year to qualify for the reduced lunch program.

"We're well, well, well over 90 percent. Most of our buildings are at 95 percent and higher," Ozuna said. "I think that accurately reflects what is going on in our community."

The same goes for Granger, where census estimates show 36.9 percent of children living in poverty.

"That's really low for the Lower Valley," said Jill Ihly, director of business and operations for the Granger School District. She hadn't seen the census estimates Thursday, but stressed, "There's no way we are at 36.9 percent."

That percentage is much smaller than the approximately 92 percent of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, she said. And, "That is what we base all of our funding off of."

Sunnyside School District assistant superintendent Gary Vegar hadn't yet seen the census estimates either. But he said the same thing as Ihly.

"That just seems very low," he said when he heard the numbers.

Approximately 33.1 percent of children live in poverty in the Sunnyside School District, according to the census estimates. However, the percentages of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch are much higher. They run from 80 to 92 percent depending on the school building, according to Vegar.

"We're at about 85 percent districtwide, which makes a really small percentage of students that aren't (on free or reduced lunch)," he said. "Without looking at the numbers, that (census) percentage, to me, appears low compared to typical free and reduced lunch percentages that come in from year to year."

The estimates also show more than a quarter of students in the Yakima School District, the largest school district in Central Washington, live in poverty.

However, approximately 82 percent of Yakima students qualify for free or reduced lunch, according to district spokeswoman Mary Beth Wright.

Still, she said she wasn't surprised by the numbers.

"Our indicator is the free and reduced lunch program. But both numbers are pretty typical," she said. "It's pretty typical that the census comes in lower."

Estimates are given for the total population, the number of children 5 to 17 years old and the number of children 5 to 17 in families in poverty. And they combine data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and 2000 census with federal tax information and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program records.

The school districts with the fewest students living in poverty, according to the latest census estimates, are Naches Valley with 10.3 percent, Selah with 10.8 percent and West Valley with 11.4 percent.

The report can be found at www.census.gov/did/www/saipe.

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.

SCHOOL     DISTRICT            PERCENT OF STUDENTS IN POVERTY
East Valley                           12.7
Grandview                           22.5
Granger                              36.9
Highland                             18.4
Mabton                               31.3
Mount Adams                      23.3
Naches Valley                      10.3
Prosser                               19.7
Selah                                 10.8
Sunnyside                           33.1
Toppenish                           28.4
Union Gap                          24.5
Wapato                              25.8
West Valley                        11.4
Yakima                               26.1
Zillah                                19.2

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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