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Each year, the Census Bureau estimates how many school-aged children in every school district live below the poverty line.

In 2018, that means an adult raising two children had income of $20,780 or less. That’s a tough circumstance, whether for a grad student, a single mom working a minimum wage job or a disabled grandparent raising grandchildren.

In some Oregon communities, child poverty is extremely rare. Many years, Lake Oswego has been foremost among them. But this year, another community has an even lower rate.

These 15 school districts had child poverty rates lower than 10 percent:

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Faith Cathcart / The Oregonian / 2013

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Tigard-Tualatin

The Tigard-Tualatin school district, which spans two cities with 16 schools, is the third-largest in Oregon with an extra-low child poverty rate.

Child poverty rate: 9 percent

1,260 children in poverty

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Jamie Francis | The Oregonian | 2012

Hills just outside of Philomath.

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Philomath

This rural Benton County city was formerly dominated by lumber mills. Few families in town are wealthy. But poverty is rare, the Census Bureau says.

Child poverty rate: 9 percent

144 children in poverty

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E.J. Harris | East Oregonian

Exchange Farm Labor-Teens

In June, Hermiston high school senior Trevor Horn drove a combine to harvest Kentucky blue grass at Golden Valley Farms just outside Stanfield.

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Stanfield

This small eastern Oregon town lies just off Interstate 84 near Hermiston. It has just two schools, one elementary and one secondary, and enrolls fewer than 500 students.

Child poverty rate: 9 percent

48 children in poverty

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Betsy Hammond | The Oregonian |2015

Kindergartners on their first day of school in 2015.

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Oregon City

Voters in Oregon City just approved a $158 million bond to upgrade all its schools, including rebuilding Gardiner Middle School. It’s a relatively affordable place to buy a home, yet posts a low child poverty rate, the Census Bureau reports.

Child poverty rate: 9 percent

866 children in poverty

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courtesy of Lundy Elementary

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Lowell

Lowell is a tiny town of just over 1,000 people located southeast of Eugene on the north shore of Dexter Reservoir on the middle fork of the Willamette River.

Child poverty rate: 9 percent

37 children in poverty

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Benjamin Brink | Special to The Oregonian

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Hillsboro

Hillsboro is a heavily Latino school district encompassing both the city of Hillsboro and surrounding areas. It used to have numerous high poverty schools. But the area has seen its child poverty rate fall sharply over the past five years, the Census Bureau says. It is now the second-most-populous low poverty district in the state.

Child poverty rate: 9 percent

2,114 children in poverty

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Stephanie Yao Long / The Oregonian

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Beaverton

Beaverton is the largest low-poverty school district in Oregon. The district, which extends well beyond the city limits to areas including Cedar Mill, Bethany and Aloha, enrolls slightly more than 40,000 students.

Child poverty rate: 8 percent

3,756 children in poverty

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Yamhill-Carlton

The Oregonian first called attention to Yamhill-Carlton’s low child poverty rate two year ago, noting “the Yamhill County town of Carlton, with farms like this one, is not an obvious place to find one of the state's lowest rates of school-aged students in poverty. But more than 90 percent of students living in the Yamhill-Carlton district are estimated to be above that economic line.”

That remains true again this year, the Census Bureau says.

Child poverty rate: 8 percent

93 children in poverty

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Corbett

The Corbett school district, located at the mouth of the Columbia Gorge, has a charter school that strives to draw students who live outside the district as well as district residents. The Census Bureau’s poverty estimate is based only on school-aged children who live inside district boundaries.

Child poverty rate: 7 percent

52 children in poverty

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Google Maps

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Sisters

Small-town Sisters lies at the edge of the Willamette National Forest northwest of Bend. Named for the trio of Cascade peaks nearby, the tourist town has three schools: Sisters Elementary, Sisters Middle School and Sisters High.

Child poverty rate: 7 percent

101 children in poverty

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Benjamin Brink | Special to The Oregonian

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Banks

The Bank school district serves the small Washington County city and broad swaths of rural countryside surrounding it. Like Sisters, it has three schools for the three different ages groups, all named for the city.

Child poverty rate: 6 percent

83 children in poverty

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Riverdale

Located in the exclusive Dunthorpe neighborhood between Portland and Lake Oswego, the Riverdale school district is composed largely of homes costing more than $1 million and offers a sought-after academic program. Very few of its residents are raising children below the poverty line.

Child poverty rate: 6 percent

27 children in poverty

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Krystina Wentz-Graff | The Oregonian | 2015

Athey Creek Middle School students perform.

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West Linn-Wilsonville

The West Linn-Wilsonville school district spans both cities and includes 17 schools, including a charter high school and a new middle school now in its second year of operation.

Child poverty rate: 6 percent

515 children in poverty

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Lake Oswego

Along with West Linn, Lake Oswego has among the highest median family income of any Oregon cities, at an estimated $135,000 in 2017. And its child poverty rate is extremely low, lower in fact than at any point in the past 11 years.

Child poverty rate: 4 percent

294 children in poverty

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Doug Beghtel | The Oregonian | 2011

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Sherwood

Sherwood has set a new record for the share of children in a large Oregon district living above the poverty line -- 97 percent -- the new Census figures show. The bedroom community 25 miles southwest of Portland has nearly doubled in population over the past 20 years. The district, which has a single high school, has the fourth-highest median family income for an Oregon city, $123,000, Census figures show.

Child poverty rate: 3 percent

224 children in poverty

Source: U.S. Census Bureau’s small-area income estimates for 2017.