COUNTY AMONG 3 WORST FOR KIDS; 40% OF LOS ANGELES TOTS LIVE IN POVERTY.

Byline: Phillip W. Browne Staff Writer

Nearly 40 percent of Los Angeles County children under 5 live in poverty, ranking it among the three worst California counties for youngsters, according to a study released Thursday.

Statewide 28.6 percent of California's 3.36 million toddlers live below the poverty level, and one in five does not have health insurance, according to Children Now, an Oakland-based child policy and advocacy organization that released the findings.

``We are denying ourselves and our children the robust beginnings in life,'' says Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now.

Los Angeles and Fresno counties were rated as having 39.6 percent and 42.2 percent toddler poverty rates respectively. Imperial County had the highest rate with 49.5 percent.

The national poverty level is calculated based on the average cost for an apartment rental multiplied by three, Salisbury said. The poverty level for a family of four is $16,450 per year and below. For a family of three it is $12,400.

Salisbury said the release of the study coincides with the allocation of Proposition 10 money, from a tax on cigarettes for childhood programs. The study also is aimed at increasing investment in such early childhood programs as Head Start, because ages 1 to 5 are the ``prime time for learning,'' Salisbury said.

``We want to try to reverse the fact that so many children are living in the deepest level of poverty,'' Salisbury said.

Children Now and Proposition 10 co-author Rob Reiner are expected to release the analysis during a press conference at UCLA today. ``The best investment we can make as a society is to establish a comprehensive, integrated system of early childhood development services that help all young children get the right start in life,'' Reiner said in a statement released Thursday.

Voters in 1998 narrowly approved Proposition 10, which added a 50-cents-a-pack tax on cigarettes in California to be spent on child development programs for kids between the prenatal stage and age 5. Los Angeles County is expected to gain $260 million for these programs before the end of the year.

The analysis' other key findings include:

California's infant mortality rate for African-American infants remains twice that of whites.

Enrollment rates for the federally funded Head Start preschool program only range between 41 and 57 percent of capacity.

The average statewide health care cost is $651 per month for a toddler, and rent for a two-bedroom apartment averages $737 per month.

Nearly 40 percent of children in California are born to women with less than a high school education.