According to a new study, children across the country are faring better than in years past. In one of the most dramatic findings of the “Kids Count” report, released this month by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the number of teenage parents steadily dropped between 1990 and 2001. In 1990, 28 infants were born for every 100,000 teenage girls ages 15 to 17. By 2001, that number had fallen to 18. New York City reflects this pattern. Norman Johnson, assistant director of the teenage services division of the Administration for Children’s Services, credited the drop to the expansion of sex education programs and greater contraceptive distribution. [06/21/04]