Ventura County gets a grade of C in the state for children's overall well-being, a report card released this week shows.

The nonprofit group Children Now graded virtually all the state's 58 counties on measures tied to the education, health and safety of California's 11 million children.

"Our goal is making sure every kid has the support that they need," said Ted Lempert, president of the Oakland-based child advocacy organization. "This gives a relative view of how a particular county is doing."

Affluent Marin and inland Placer and El Dorado counties in Northern California were the top finishers, pulling grades of B.

But three-fourths of the counties scored C's, including Ventura County and all of coastal Southern California. Nine counties trailed with D's, nearly all of them in the Central Valley or on the state's northern border.

No county received an A as researchers compared how the counties did on 26 standards designed to assess children's well being. The standards called for all children to reach the goal, whether that was enrollment in preschool, going to the dentist regularly or not being depressed.

A Children Now research official said there's good reason to strive for perfection.

"Is it acceptable to allow any child to fail?" asked Jessica Mindnich, senior policy associate of research. "Is it acceptable to have children who aren't having their asthma managed properly? Is it acceptable to have children who are not safe?"

This report marks the first time that the advocacy group has issued grades for the counties as opposed to the state as a whole, Lempert said.

Lempert said he hoped community leaders would see the results and work toward better ones. The agency plans to issue the score cards every two years.

"I like the idea of friendly competition and trying to improve things for kids," he said.

Ventura County scored well in comparison with the state as a whole in terms of healthy weights for children, school test scores, regular access to dental care and low youth arrests for nonviolent crimes.

But the county, with 234,000 children, lagged on a number of health factors.

Children Now reported that 90 percent of children in the county have private or public health insurance, but that other high-income urbanized counties topped it.

All children in San Francisco County have health insurance, the report card estimated. Marin, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties achieved 98 percent, according to the score card.

Children Now said 65 percent of Ventura County children reported being in "very good" to "excellent" health. The rate, though, stood at or near 80 percent in Marin, Placer and San Mateo counties.

The county also ranked low for the percentage of newborns who are breast-fed exclusively before they go home from the hospital at 44 percent. It scored low for the 65 percent rate at which asthmatic children are treated outside the emergency room.

The grades were based on surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and local school districts.

That methodology concerns Selfa Saucedo, a Ventura County public health official .

"I take reports like this with a grain of salt," she said.

Saucedo said the findings on health coverage, for example, are based on telephone calls to homes of a small sample of residents.

That may not capture the county's approach to provide universal care if not universal insurance, she said.

Under the approach, health outreach workers sign up children for insurance programs, enrolling more than 11,000 in the past two years. Those who don't qualify are guaranteed access to care through the county system of public clinics, Saucedo said.

"Any child that comes through our doors will be eligible for healthcare," the health education manager said.

Ventura County scored average on half of the indicators, including adolescent risk of depression, access to school nurses, children's sense of safety at school and access to prenatal care.

In terms of overall state results, Lempert said he was struck by the findings on school safety. Ventura County scored in the average range, with 29 percent of high school students reporting that they feel safe and have not been victimized in school.

Although school crime rates are not much higher than in past decades, insecurity is an issue, Lempert said.

"This shows what a lot of parents feel, that there is a real lack of safety that young people feel and that has a big impact on their development."

On the Net: http:www.childrennow.org/scorecard