BY BETH DEDMAN
The Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York hosted a webinar to explain its latest data on child well-being in NYC from the Keeping Track of New York City’s Children data book and discussed what the latest data suggested about the impacts of the 2020 Census on children and families.
Keeping Track of New York City’s Children is produced every year as a guidebook, with the most recent data from the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the decennial census, said Bijan Kimiagar, the Associate Executive Director for Research.
This edition of Keeping Track of New York City’s Children was designed to be a resource for the 2020 census and highlighted the importance of making sure to count children, particularly those under the age of 5, accurately.
“The Decennial Census is critical to CCC’s mission to see all children healthy, housed, educated and safe,” Data Analyst Sophia Halkitis said.
More than 70,000 children were undercounted in the 2010 census in NYC alone, Halkitis said. Counting accurately is important for the allocation of federal funding for programs for housing, nutrition, and education.
Having an accurate count of citizens also affects the 435 seats of the House of Representatives, which ultimately gets to vote on legislation that can affect families, Halkitis said.
Keeping Track of New York City’s Children also analyzes statistics about economic security, health, mental health, education, family and community as well as things like youth justice.
The researchers involved documented factors that can make communities hard to count, such as lack of internet access, immigration status, and poverty.
The full digital copy of Keeping Track of New York City’s Children is available online.
Access to the 2020 Census is also available online.
