2020 Census and our students

[livetoread]

Both of my kids attend the same university, and both are now online only. I am working on the census, and I’m not sure what to do about one of them.

My son is in his own, off campus apartment, and he is staying there, so I’m not counting him. My daughter was in the dorm and is currently home. She will be home on April 1st and will be until dorms open again. Maybe fall? Anyway, the info I could find was mixed as to whether she will be counted with school data even though she is home, or not. How have you guys done this?

Edited March 31, 2020 by livetoread

[livetoread]

Okay, to answer my own question, I finally got ahold of someone at the school, and they said to count her at home, so I’ll be doing that.

[8filltheheart]

I counted my dd w/o even thinking about it.  She was home most of Jan b/c the spring semester hadn't started yet.  She will be home from March 4 until at least Aug 17, so that is almost 6 months. 

[RootAnn]

The official census instructions say to not count them at home if they lived in campus housing before this all blew up, but I have no idea if they will actually be counted by school officials. 

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/modifying-2020-operations-for-counting-college-students.html

[fourisenough]

I was told NOT to count them as the college will count/report them.

[livetoread]

On 3/31/2020 at 1:40 PM, RootAnn said:

The official census instructions say to not count them at home if they lived in campus housing before this all blew up, but I have no idea if they will actually be counted by school officials. 

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/modifying-2020-operations-for-counting-college-students.html

Yes, that’s what threw me, but if her school tells me to go ahead and count her, I will (and did). I figured the school probably has enough else to worry about besides trying to figure out census stuff for kids who aren’t there, but it’s going to hurt the area for them not to be counted there.

[RootAnn]

Yeah, these are weird times. My DD's college told the kids (early in the year) that they'd be filling out their own census info. Then, (almost) everybody went home. It'll be a weird census...

[JenneinCA]

We counted both of the college kids that should be at school out of state as being here.  But we also marked that it was possible that they would be counted somewhere else.  We figured that was the best we could do.

Edited April 12, 2020 by JenneinCA
Typo

[frogger]

Ooops. I didn't think about it. Since he was at home when the census was due I counted him here. I didn't think to analyze it thoroughly since he didn't fill out his own elsewhere. I had no idea colleges counted their dorms like a household.

Edited April 12, 2020 by frogger

[mom2scouts]

Ugh, what a mess. I live in a university town. It's important for students to be counted in the census for our area because they live here nine months out of the year and need many of the services provided. Our population doubles when students are in town. Only students who live in on-campus, university owned dorms are counted by the college, but that only includes a small number of the total number of students. I'm not sure what the university will do now with the census since students have all been sent home.

[RootAnn]

15 hours ago, frogger said:

I had no idea colleges counted their dorms like a household.

I'm not sure what they are doing this year. Some schools do it that way & others don't.

[*LC]

Definitely a weird situation, but the Census FAQ tells you exactly what to do for college students who are only home due to COVID19.

• In general, students in colleges and universities temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus will still be counted as part of this process.  Even if they are home on census day, April 1, they should be counted according to the residence criteria which states they should be counted where they live and sleep most of the time. We are asking schools to contact their students and remind them to respond.
• Per the Census Bureau’s residence criteria, in most cases students living away from home at school should be counted at school, even if they are temporarily elsewhere due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even knowing this, it felt weird not to include the college kid, who is home right now, on our form. I'm sure the college town wants the students counted, so the university will make sure to complete the group count as they normally do for on-campus students. It is the off-campus students who went home, who are less-likely to be counted in the right place. I reminded mine to fill out census. (I also had to remind my parents.)

Before kids, my hobby was genealogy. I remember how exciting it was to find a family on a census record and how frustrating it was to search and search for a census record for someone with no luck. I wonder if genealogists in 70 years will wonder about this census. 

 

 

[*LC]

• College students living in on-campus housing are counted through their university as part of our Group Quarters Operation, which counts all students living in university owned housing. In addition to college dormitories, the Group Quarters Operation also includes places like nursing homes, group homes, halfway houses and prisons. 
• During our recent 2020 Census Group Quarters Advance Contact operation we contacted college/university student housing administrators to get their input on the enumeration methods that will allow students to participate in the 2020 Census.
• Nearly half, about 47 percent, have chosen the eResponse methodology and about 7 percent chose paper listings, both of which provide the Census Bureau directory information (electronically or via paper records) about each student.  About 35 percent, however, chose drop-off/pick-up which allows students to self-respond using an Individual Census Questionnaire (or ICQ). We are contacting those schools to ask whether they would like to change that preference in light of the emerging situation. 

(Doesn't mention what the other 10 percent do.)

So, how colleges take part in the group count can differ, but all students who live on campus normally should be counted as living there. 

We’re delaying the start of our Mobile Questionnaire Assistance program.

• We plan to offer assistance with responding to the 2020 Census at events and locations where people naturally gather as part of our Mobile Questionnaire Assistance program.
• We now plan to offer this assistance fully across the country on April 13, delaying from the previously planned start of March 30.