• 1.5 million children under the age of 18 (below voting age) live in Washington. They make up 24% of the state's total population.
  - Washington State 2005 Data Book
  
  
• Washington State ranks number 31 in the nation for the percentage of high school students who graduate, which was 72% for the class of 2002.
  -Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, 2005
  
  
• There are approximately 758,568 Washington families with children under age 18. 22% of those are led by single mothers.
  - American Communities Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, 2006
  
  
• Nearly one-third of Washington households include children.
  - American Communities Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, 2006
  
  
• As of October 2006, there were 1,026,682 children enrolled in the state’s public school system. 67.5% of the students were white and approximately 30% were children of color (American Indian/Alaskan Native 2.7%, Asian 7.8%, Black 5.6% Hispanic 14.0%).
  - Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2006
  
  
• Washington ranks 26th among states in the percentage of children who are poor (with 1st representing the lowest child rate).
  - Children’s Defense Fund, 2006

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* The U.S. Census Bureau and the State Office of Financial Management consider “Hispanic” to be an ethnicity. People of any race can also be Hispanic, and breakouts of people by race do not include Hispanic as part of the total.

** Washington’s public education data designates “Hispanic” as a race. Hispanic children are included as a separate race when total student populations are broken out by race.