A new report praises North Carolina for a near record-low child death rate but gives the state low grades for child obesity and access to insurance.

The advocacy group Action for Children and the North Carolina Institute for Medicine released their N.C. Child Health Report Card on Wednesday. The report found that the state's infant death rate has decreased over the last 20 years.

But Action for Children President and CEO Barbara Bradley noted that there has been "stagnation" in some areas related to children's health care. For example, minorities continue to have higher infant mortality and teen pregnancy rates than whites.

The report also noted more than 13 percent of the state's children do not have health insurance - an increase from five years ago, when about 11.7 percent of North Carolina minors didn't have coverage.

The percentage of overweight children in all age brackets increased between 2002 and 2007, according to the report. It estimates nearly 30 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 18 are overweight.

The groups said government officials must continue to focus on health initiatives but that parents need to be involved, too.