One from the bottom of the list is not where Dallas County needs to rest.

The county ranked 66 out of the 67 counties of Alabama in the 2010 Kids Count report, which analyzes the education, health, safety and security of the children in the county.

The information collected from the state Department of Human Resources and the Department of Public Health is analyzed by VOICES for Alabama’s Children to show trends either improving or hindering the physical and mental growth of children.

“We want folks to know where we are now,” said Linda Tilly, executive director of VOICES for Alabama’s Children. “We want to them to understand where we’ve been getting better or worse. Each year we hope the numbers in the current data book serve as a benchmark so that we can plan and say we need to do better here.”

VOICES for Alabama’s Children, established in 1992, documents the conditions of children living in the state to build awareness of the need for legislative efforts to improve the quality of life for Alabama’s children.

Dallas County ranked in the top half of the list in only two subcategories: 18 for an infant mortality rate of 13.5 per year and 29 for a child death rate of 22.8 per year.

But rankings in every other category were not as commendable.

In health, the county ranked 55 for low weight births and 66 for births to unmarried teens.

For education, the county ranked 65 for first grade retention.

In safety, the county ranked 66 for juvenile violent crime court petition rate and 62 for preventable teen death rate.

For security, the county ranked 66 for vulnerable families, 66 for total children in poverty and 60 for children in single-parent families.

These numbers are not meant to discourage.

“If you really delve down into some of the numbers and look at those, we’re seeing progress,” Tilly said. “That is really the most important. A state or a county starts where it is, and when you have a lot of ground to make up, sometimes it takes a long time to catch up.”

As a state, Alabama ranked 47 in a state-by-state comparison.

Between 2007 and 2008, the amount of children living in poverty fell from 24 percent to 22 percent. A family of two adults and two children living on an income of $21,834 were categorized as poor. Nationally, the poverty rate is 18 percent.

The state continues an upward trend for a decrease in the teen birth rate and child death rate.

The study is meant as the first step to improving the well being of children in the state, intended to catch the attention of political leaders and policy makers in communities.

“Data in and of itself doesn’t ever change things, but we often see what gets measured is the first to get changed,” Tilly said.

She also wants the information to help others understand that what happens when a child is young will effect the future of the community.

“We are also trying to help people connect the dots that what happens to all of our children impacts every one of us. It is not enough for parents to say my child is doing well, because is other children are not doing well, then the community in which your child lives will not thrive.”