KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The 2010 "Kids Count" rankings are out and there's a big change for our state. The rankings measure everything from the teen birth rate to the percentage of children in poverty.

This year, Tennessee came in at number 41 - its best ranking yet. But there was a spike when it came to child poverty, the number of children in single-parent families and the percentage of low-birthweight babies.

The rankings are a mixed blessing for Sheri Smith, director of critical care at East Tennessee Children's Hospital.
"if you look at it overall, we did go up a little bit. But there're only 50 states."

The 2010 data shows the infant mortality rate dropped by 9 percent.
But low-birthweight babies increased by 2 percent.

"As long as I've been here the premature rate for Tennessee is one of the worst in the nation. It has improved, though," Smith said.

Smith credits some of that improvement to partnerships the hospital has with the March of Dimes and the Tennessee Initiative Perionatal Quality Care Program or TIP-QC.

"Neonatal intensive care units across the state are working together to provide better outcomes for babies that do land in NICU," said Smith.

Tennessee - up 10 percent in the number of children living in poverty - ranks 40th in that category.

Smith and others who work to care for children hope things improve soon.

"Everybody feels like their child is the only child that needs to have a person taking care of them and what we all wanna do is increase the quality of care available to provide for our children."

Students in Tennessee are seeing some improvements when it comes to education.

For 2010, the data shows that the percentage of teens not in school and who are not high school graduates in Tennessee dropped 36 percent from last year.

Figures also improved when it comes to child death rates.

"A lot has to do with legislation. The new booster seat law, requiring helmets on children," says Susan Cook with the SafeKids Coalition at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. Cook says the coalition does public service announcements to educate parents on how to care for children, which ultimately produces happier kids and better students.

"If they're suffering issues at home, they're not going to do well in school."

The report also says the teen death rate dropped by 7 percent.

"A lot of decrease in teen deaths are attributed to graduated drivers licensing that just came into efect. That made a huge impact," according to Cook.

While the death rates and the percentage of teens not in school both decreased, Cook says every citizen in Tennessee still has a responsibility.

Said Cook: "It's gonna take - everyone has to step up. Not only children, hospitals, coalitions, but individuals within their own communities and families need to step up to bring us where we need to be."

If you're wondering who ranks first, it's New Hampshire, followed by Minnesota and then Vermont. The bottom three states were Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.