V. Vulnerable Groups Living in Difficulties

1. Child poverty is a shocking problem

12.8 million US children lived in poverty by 2018, with those of color made up nearly three-quarters of.

Nearly one in four children of color in the US was poor.

A total of 3.5 million children under 5 were poor in 2018, with 1.6 million of those children living in extreme poverty.

2. Child abuse is an alarming problem

Approximately 3.5 million children were involved in the child victim reports, increasing by approximately 10 percent from 2013 to 2017.

A national estimate of 1,720 children died from abuse and neglect, with 18.3% physically abused and 8.6% sexually abused.

3. Campus safety conditions keep worsening

Among students ages 12-18, there were about 827,000 total victimizations at school and 503,800 victimizations away from school in 2017.

Three times as many girls were reported being harassed online or by text message than boys.

4. Poverty of the elderly becomes worse

An alarming one in 12 seniors aged 60 and older - 5.5 million people - did not have enough food in 2017.

About 40% of middle-class Americans would live close to or in poverty by the time they reach age 65.

Of those who were still at working ages, 62% of African Americans and 69% of Latinos had no retirement savings.

5. Medical expenses are too high for the elder to afford

US elder people spent the most on long-term care facility services.

People with Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease spent the most on long-term care services.

6. Elderly care services are expensive and fraught with problems

The cost could put a family into the poor house unless the elderly person qualifies for Medicaid.

Nearly 400 facilities in the United States had serious ongoing health, safety or sanitary problems.

7. Elderly abuse and suicide rates are shocking

About 16% of older adults were victims of some form of mistreatment, including financial exploitation, neglect, physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse.

More than 8,500 people aged 65 or above committed suicide in the US in 2017.

One out of four senior citizens that attempted suicide died, 50 times the possibility for younger people.

8. Disabled people face severe discrimination when finding jobs

Disabled adults experienced poverty at nearly twice the rate of their nondisabled counterparts.

One in four Americans with disabilities faced unique challenges in securing gainful employment and establishing financial security.

The government fired 2,626 disabled employees in 2017, a 24% increase over 2016.

The employment-to-population ratio for working-age people with disabilities decreased by 1.9% year on year in 2019.

9. The accessibility of government projects to help the disabled is not enough

The government was narrowly crafting specialized definitions of disability to restrict access to critical support programs such as Medicaid and nutrition assistance.

10. Barrier-free environment is under poor construction

A project to build low-income apartments with federal funds of Los Angeles failed to allow wheelchair users have safe access in 2019.

Website accessibility cases had significantly increased in the first half of 2019, during which plaintiffs with disabilities alleged that they could not access websites.