Looking for new ways to engage your kids while they’re home with you this week? Invite them to help answer your family’s 2020 census – which can be completed conveniently online, for the first time in U.S. history. Or, if you already completed your household census, revisit the census website and explore the wide variety of downloadable lessons and interactive games, songs, videos and activities for teachers, parents and kids to learn about the once-every-10-years nationwide count.

“There are so many activities, and they were designed by teachers for use in the classroom and also can be used by parents with their kids at home,” said  Michelle Yerkovich, on staff with the City of Globe - and leading local efforts to promote census awareness. “They are sorted for different grade levels and different subjects. For example one activity is called ‘Lets Count,’ where a parent or babysitter can creatively get kids to conduct their own mini-census by counting objects around one room in the house. Follow the simple instructions online and kids should learn to use a basic data table to organize information, and to analyze and make comparisons with the data they collect. Parents will find this is ideal for kindergarteners and first-graders, and an easy way to occupy 30-45 minutes of time. Read more at census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/activities/overview.html

Or search  census.gov  using keywords “statistics in schools”
Complete Your Census - Together
How many people live in your home?
What are their ages, and how are they related?
Do you live in a house, apartment or mobile home?
Inviting kids to suggest the answers while you complete your 2020 census is a chance to teach them a few things about the United States Constitution. Its true! Article 1 of our ‘law of the land’ requires a new count of the entire population every 10 years. Completing the census together also offers a chance to talk about specific questions – and why they’re both appropriate and important. Globe -Miami celebrates a variety of cultural and racial heritage: Mexican, Native American, Asian, Black, White; and Questions 8 and 9 of the Census offer a chance to represent your heritage with pride. Are the questions appropriate? You’ll find that question answered at the US census website, which states: “Why we ask this question: These responses help create statistics about this ethnic group. This helps federal agencies monitor compliance with anti-discrimination provisions, such as those in the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.”

And: “This allows us to create statistics about race and to analyze other statistics within racial groups. This data helps federal agencies monitor compliance with anti-discrimination provisions, such as those in the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.”

Young Children Count, Too!
You hug your kids and tell them how much you love them; completing the Census together is an opportunity to explain another way they’re important – not just to you, but to our community. Its truly essential to count everyone once, just once, and in the right place. An estimated five-percent of kids under the age of five weren’t counted in the 2010 Census. That’s about 1 million young children, the highest of any age group. Globe and Miami leaders ask your help to close this gap with the 2020 Census.

How do kids get missed? Some children split time between two homes: staying with another family or a grandparent.

The census counts everyone where they live and sleep most of the time, even if the living arrangement is temporary or the parents of the child do not live there. If your child truly spends equal amounts of time between two homes, count them where they stayed on the official Census Day, April 1.
If your family is a lower income household?

Your participation in the census helps determine $675 billion in local funding for programs such as food stamps (also called the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP), the National School Lunch Program, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). When children are missed in the census, these programs miss out on funding that is based on the number of children counted. And if you’re a single parent, filling out the census yourself, on your own schedule, is so much easier than having to respond when a census worker knocks on your door. The form usually takes less than 10 minutes to fill out and can be done online or over the phone, in addition to mailing it back.

And if the child is a newborn, parents should include babies on census forms, even if they are still in the hospital on April 1.

The census website is also a place for reassurance. Do you have children living in a place where they aren’t allowed, for example, grandparents in a seniors-only residence that have a grandchild living with them – or a family with more people, including children, than your lease allows? Yes, you should include the children because the Census Bureau does not share information, so it can’t be used against you. The Census Bureau has a legal commitment to keep census responses confidential, and is forbidden from sharing information with immigration enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), law enforcement agencies like the police or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or allow this information to be used to determine eligibility for government benefits.

How about kids who live in a non-English speaking, or limited-English speaking household? Again, its crucial to Globe and Miami that all young children are counted, and the 2020 Census online form and telephone line are available in 13 languages, including English. Additionally, language guides will be available in 59 languages other than English.

And what about kids living in a household of recent immigrants, or foreign-born adults?

Community leaders throughout Gila County have spent the past year conducting outreach and pre-census publicity, hoping to reach immigrants both through local media and gathering places, such as community events (Miami Fiesta, Apache Jii Day), grocery stores, places of worship, and more. Among the main messages?

Emphasizing the Census Bureau’s obligation by law to keep individual census responses confidential, and explaining that the Census Bureau is restricted from sharing information with immigration enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), law enforcement agencies like the police or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or allow this information to be used to determine eligibility for government benefits.

Find more downloadable lessons and activities for teachers and parents by searching keywords ‘Statistics in Schools’ at  2020census.gov