This Children's Defense Fund 1998 report on the well being of America's children highlights the critical need for renewed commitment to children by all sectors of society. The introduction describes health and educational outcomes for poor children and calls for adults to redirect their priorities and develop solutions to these problems. The report details the following: (1) family income, including the pervasiveness of child poverty, the impact of welfare reform, and inadequate child support; (2) child health, including the problem of uninsured children, new developments in Medicaid coverage, managed care, and maternal and child health; (3) child care, describing federal, state, and local initiatives, uneven state progress, and recent research findings; (4) child nutrition, including food stamp reductions, state procedures, problems of immigrant children, and subsidized meal programs; (5) children and families in crisis, including permanency planning, kinship care, community partnerships, special population needs, and focusing on outcomes; (6) violence committed to and by children, including the move toward stiffer penalties for juvenile offenders and prevention measures; and (7) adolescent pregnancy. Two appendices provide tabulated data on children nationwide and by state, covering areas such as poverty, maternal and infant health, adolescent childbearing, youth unemployment, government aid participation, child support, Head Start enrollment, child abuse and neglect, and firearm deaths. Web sites of interest to child advocates are listed.(SD/KB)