Child Magazine Names Maine as One of the Safest States for Kids

November 2006 - In the November edition of Child Magazine, Maine was ranked among the top 10 safest states for kids. The Magazine conducted a six-month review of every state, considering protection from both accidents and violence. More than 55 criteria were examined, including crime rates; the number of police officers and firefighters per capita; the availability and quality of emergency-medicine doctors and trauma centers; childhood-injury rates; booster-seat, bike-helmet, and window-guard laws, school-bus-crossing safety issues; the quality of playgrounds; protection from sex offenders and much more. The survey found Maine to be the seventh safest state in the nation.

According to the survey, Maine has the second-lowest violent-crime rate in the U.S. (only North Dakota’s rate is better) and the sixth-lowest rate of property crime. It is the first state to mandate that pharmaceutical companies post clinical-drug trial data online, enhancing patient safety, and Maine boasts one of the strongest booster-seat laws in the country, requiring them for children up to age 8 and less than 80 pounds. Bullying and harassment should be much less of a problem for Maine students this year, thanks to a law that made each school board adopt formal policies on the subject by September. “Previously some schools had policies, but they were so disparate in how they defined—or even if they defined— what bullying is,” says Rep. Carol Grose, who sponsored the legislation. The bill, passed in July 2005, created training programs for teachers and staff, online tools, and model policies each school could use to tailor its own.