A recent study showed that aside from lead poisoning, poor housing quality and conditions can affect the school performance of children.
As reported by Cleveland.com, a study conducted by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western University revealed that children who live in or near poor quality housing showed poor kindergarten readiness tests performance. They are more likely to perform worse than those who are living in better housing.
The study, co-authored by the center's director, Claudia Coulton, looked into a couple of housing measures such as foreclosures, market value, tax delinquency and concentrated poverty to understand the link the housing quality has to children's school performance.
Cleveland.com noted that while the direct link of housing quality to the kids' test scores was not yet established, the sure thing was that it is an issue and it needs to be addressed.
The proponents of the study suggest that the city government should look into early warning signs that children are living in housing locations where lead risks are high. It would also be helpful to assess homes and give lead clearance through the "Lead Safe Living" program.
Lead poisoning is one of the major factors in poor test results among children before they get into kindergarten. Per the study mentioned above, out of 13,000 Cleveland Metropolitan school district children, 40 percent were found to have high lead content in their blood. Lead can cause low IQ, irreversible brain damage, learning disabilities, behavior issues and other health issues, Cleveland.com reported.
Aside from homes with lead hazards, vacant and abandoned homes can also affect children living near them. The study hopes that Cleveland will also tackle this. Some old, dilapidated homes are being demolished as advocated by some groups.
Jim Rokakis, head of Thriving Communities Institute, said identifying homes that have lead hazards and renovating what can still be fixed is an urgent work. "We need to go faster," he said. "Every time we bring one of these houses down we take one source of potential lead poisoning out of the stream. But that's only part of the problem."
