A kindergartener counted in the 2020 Census this spring will be starting high school when the next census comes around in 2030: That’s 10 years of school supplies, teachers, school lunches, and so much more. This is your opportunity to help ensure they have a bright future.

Right now, students are learning that the 2020 Census is a count of every person who lives in the United States and its territories. Responding to the census helps the City of Detroit get its fair share of funding. Census data guides how more than $675 billion in federal funding is distributed to states and communities each year for schools, health care facilities, roads, transportation, recreation centers, social services, and more.

We need to make sure every Detroiter is counted, no matter their age, income, type of residency or immigration status.

Children have long been a hard to count population and have face underrepresentation in previous counts. Educators must understand their crucial role in ensuring that children are accurately represented. The count serves as a basis for distributing federal assistance to schools and educational institutions, including Title 1 Grants, National School Lunch Program and special education grants to states.

It’s critical that students understand their individual role in the census as well as help inform their parents about counting them. Their response will determine Detroit’s population and federal benefits for the next decade. You can help ensure we count everyone.

Take 10 minutes to complete 5 questions and shape the future. To take the the census online visit https://detroitmi.gov/census. You can also take the census by phone, call toll-free at 844-330-2020.

For more information on how the census impacts education, download the flyer here!

Did you know?

• Under federal law, information you provide to the Census is confidential and cannot be used for anything other than statistical purposes. Your information cannot be shared with other government agencies, private companies, law enforcement, courts or individuals.
• To support historical research, Title 44 of the U.S. Code allows the National Archives and Records Administration to release census records only after 72 years.
• By law, your census responses cannot be used against you by any government agency or court in any way—not by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), not by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), not by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and not by
  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The law requires the Census Bureau to keep your information confidential and use your
  responses only to produce statistics.