WE COUNT!: Preventing an Undercount of Young Children in the 2020 Census

This October 29, 2019 GLR Learning Tuesdays webinar, was hosted in partnership with Sesame Workshop and Partnership for America’s Children. With 2 million young children missed or miscounted in the 2010 Census, affecting $160 billion in federal funding, this session highlighted how ensuring a complete and correct count in the 2020 Census matters to all who care about improving child outcomes.

During the webinar, Deborah Stein of Partnership for America’s Children presented data on the growing number of young children who are missed in the Decennial Census — even when adults in the household are counted. Since 1980, the net undercount of children age 4 and younger has tripled despite significant improvements in the counting of adults. Those most at risk of being missed are often those served by GLR coalitions. She also shared effective messages, action steps and resources developed by Count All Kids that education leaders and others can use to encourage parents and caregivers to respond to the 2020 Census.

Melissa Litwin of The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation shared what she has been doing in Paterson, New Jersey, to engage elected officials, partner organizations and trusted messengers to promote residents to respond to the Census. Litwin provided seed funding to simply put media, which has developed the WE COUNT! children’s book and complementary campaign tools to break down barriers that contribute to the historic undercount. Lisa Bernstein and Faith Lamb-Parker of simply put media introduced participants to this robust set of resources and shared that the Carnegie Foundation has underwritten WE COUNT! to make it accessible to other hard-to-count communities.