DO KIDS COUNT? LIFE ROUGH IN FLORIDA, STUDY SHOWS; STATE 47TH IN CARE OF CHILDREN ADVOCATES FOR CHILDREN DECRY LACK OF SPENDING IN '80S BUT SEE SIGNS FOR HOPE IN THE '90S.(A SECTION)

Byline: Tabatha Barham STAFF WRITER

Florida ranks near the bottom when it comes to taking care of its children, according to a report released Monday.

The 1997 National Kids Count survey - which measures the well-being of children based on 10 factors such as teen births, high-school dropouts and juvenile violent-crime arrests - ranked Florida 47th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Although that's one notch higher than the survey placed Florida last year, the state's 3.2 million children are still far from where they should be, childrens' advocates said.

The Kids Count report showed that, in 1994, more than one in seven Florida children lived in households of extreme poverty - their annual household income less than $7,382 for a family of …