While her husband's job situation could improve if they moved to a more urban area, they'd leave behind family members who help out with baby-sitting and a mortgage that ties them to Price.

"We'd be stuck in the same situation but in a strange place."

Mitchell said that some years ago the program did a study on where children spend their time if they are not in a Head Start program.

"There are some really scary stories out there," she said. "We had one case where an 82-year-old grandmother with a walker was taking care of six children under the age of 5."

The Kids Count report shows that one out of every five children in rural America is growing up in poverty and that child poverty in rural areas is well above the national average.

Locally, 47 percent of low-income families in rural Utah spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing, and the rural child population grew 6 percent from 1990 to 2000.

Kilcrease says she wishes Utah's public policy makers would take notice of the burdens faced by rural residents.

"They don't get what it is like to wake up in the morning and think, 'What on earth are we going to do about these problems?' " Kilcrease said. "We're not populated enough for them to worry about what is going on in our area. I honestly wish somebody would come spend a day with me to see what our family struggles with."

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E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com