Ensuring an accurate count of all persons in the United States is crucial to the basic principles of a representative government and ensuring federal funding is allocated fairly and efficiently for programs such as Title I grants for education, special education, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Title IV-E Foster Care, Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), Head Start, and Early Start.
An accurate 2020 Census count is vital to CA’s Kids!
Here are 3 things you should know about the 2020 Census:
1. The federal government has major plans to change the way the 2020 Census is administered which may compromise the count. In particular, there are serious concerns about the inclusion of a citizenship question, as proposed by the Trump Administration, (see statement from Census Policy Advocacy Network and five former directors of the Census) including: 1) immigrants already have raised concerns about trust in the government and could seriously reduce participation in the census, 2) the question has not been tested and is being introduced late in the process; and 3) the Constitution and subsequent Supreme Court rulings clearly state that all persons must be counted, not just citizens.
2. Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) is a crucial part of the census planning process. Earlier this year local and state governments had the once-in-a-decade opportunity to enroll in the LUCA process and are now beginning to receive address lists that need to be verified locally. Given the number of changes that can happen over a decade, it’s essential for local community organizations to get involved with their city or county to support the LUCA verification process happening over the next couple months. Contact your local county or city leaders to get more information about the LUCA address verification process in your community.
3. California has large hard-to-count communities and will require extra planning, outreach and engagement to ensure all of its residents are counted. Governor Brown has included $40 million over three years in his 2018-19 budgets to support the administration and engagement efforts in the state. Governor Brown recently appointed Ditas Katague as Director of Complete Count Census and appointed members to the Complete Count Committee who will provide guidance on the state planning efforts. Advocates are working with the Administration to ensure proper planning, outreach and engagement to reach hard-to-count populations. Learn more about hard-to-count communities here.
