Giving Compass' Take:

• Geri Mannion and Ambika Kapur explain how COVID-19 is impacting the collection of data in the 2020 Census and what advocates are doing to ensure the count, especially of children, is accurate. 

• Are you prepared to support efforts to ensure an accurate count? Which communities in your area are most at risk of being undercounted? 

• Learn more about philanthropy's role in the 2020 Census. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout the United States, the urgent need for health and stability is paramount. In these early weeks of spring, we must work together to minimize transmission and flatten the curve.

Yet even as we secure the basic safety of our homes and communities, we must not forget the important, once-a-decade 2020 U.S. Census currently underway. The information collected by this nationwide counting effort will shape public spending, research and decision-making for the next 10 years, from federal education, health and infrastructure allocations to the number of seats each state occupies in the House of Representatives. An accurate census count ensures that communities have the resources they need to respond to emergencies and thrive in less turbulent times.

This is especially important for young children. The 2010 census missed as many as 2 million children under the age of 5 — the biggest undercount in a half-century — and we have been living with the impact ever since. Undercounted communities will get less than their fair share of $800 billion in annual federal spending over the next decade, including more than $160 billion for programs vital to children, from health insurance and food stamps to special education and Head Start preschools.

Census letters have been mailed to most households by now, and a new online response form can make participation relatively quick. But that won’t be enough to gather accurate data on young children from complex or fluid households in communities that are traditionally hard to count, such as dense urban neighborhoods, rural regions and immigrant populations. Advocates had planned robust in-person campaigns to guide these families to participate, but such gatherings are not possible, for now.

Now, those same advocates are quickly turning to online resources to encourage all families to take part. For example, our philanthropic foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, is among those supporting the publication of We Count!, a children’s book and adult education program about the census available online in 15 languages. It was inspired by interviews about the census with nearly 200 parents and social service workers in immigrant communities around Paterson, New Jersey, where just 60 percent of residents responded to the last census, in 2010.

Read the full article about filling the 2020 Census gaps by Geri Mannion and Ambika Kapur at The 74.