Some common problems when filling out US census forms: Household, residence and race
By APMonday, March 15, 2010
Common problems when filling out US census forms
Some common problems when filling out U.S. census forms, which arrive by mail beginning Monday:
—HOUSEHOLD AND RESIDENCE: These are determined by where people live or sleep most of the time as of April 1. Household members should include babies born on or before April 1, 2010, as well as non-U.S. citizens. The rationale is that cities and states should receive federal money to support everyone who uses their public roads, schools and other programs.
College students who live away from home and U.S. military personnel who live in barracks are tallied in those places.
If you have more than one home, completely fill out the form for your primary residence. For the second home, mark “0” for number of residents and indicate you live elsewhere. Doing that may help avoid costly visits from a census taker.
For divorced parents who have shared custody of a child, indicate where a child usually lives. If custody is split equally, the child’s residence is where he or she is on April 1.
—RACE AND ETHNICITY: If no box exists that describes yourself, or with the level of specificity you prefer, write it in the space marked for “other race.” For example, some Caribbean-Americans plan to check the box for “black, African Am., or Negro” and then write in their ancestry. Multiracial people might check several race categories or write in “multiracial,” depending on how they self-identify. The labels do make a difference, because census results will be used to redraw congressional districts with racial and ethnic balance.
—INTERNET OPTION: There is none. Census officials in 2008 determined that submitting census data through the Internet posed too large a risk for security breaches. The Census Bureau is testing Web options for 2020, but for now information must be provided on official forms and mailed or submitted to a census taker.
—”LONG FORM”: This year’s census is only 10 questions. Previously, 1 in 6 households — roughly 20 million — received a detailed census questionnaire called the “long form” that asked about income, disability, commuting, education level and other characteristics. After 2000, the long form was eliminated and replaced by the American Community Survey, which is sent to about three million households each year. If you get an ACS form, the Census Bureau asks you fill out both surveys.
—MISSING FORMS: If you don’t receive a census form, Census Bureau director Robert Groves advises that people wait until April 12 to allow time for it to arrive. After April 12, people may call the census help line at 1-866-872-6868. In rural parts of Alaska, census information was collected door-to-door starting in January. In addition, about 12 million addresses, mostly in rural areas and Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, began receiving hand-delivered forms on March 1.
Tags: 2010 United States Census, Censuses, Demographics, Events, North America, United States, United States Census
April 11, 2010: 2:52 pm
Recently, I found the 2010 Census form hanging on my door. As I began filling it out, I came across a dilemma. The U.S. government wants to know if my children are adopted or not and it wants to know what our races are. Being adopted myself, I had to put “Other” and “Don’t Know Adopted” for my race and “Other” and “Don’t Know” for my kids’ races. Can you imagine not knowing your ethnicity, your race? Now imagine walking into a vital records office and asking the clerk for your original birth certificate only to be told “No, you can’t have it, it’s sealed.” How about being presented with a “family history form” to fill out at every single doctor’s office visit and having to put “N/A Adopted” where life saving information should be? Imagine being asked what your nationality is and having to respond with “I don’t know”. It is time that the archaic practice of sealing and altering birth certificates of adopted persons stops. Adoption is a 5 billion dollar, unregulated industry that profits from the sale and redistribution of children. It turns children into chattel who are re-labeled and sold as “blank slates”. Genealogy, a modern-day fascination, cannot be enjoyed by adopted persons with sealed identities. Family trees are exclusive to the non-adopted persons in our society. If adoption is truly to return to what is best for a child, then the rights of children to their biological identities should NEVER be violated. Every single judge that finalizes an adoption and orders a child’s birth certificate to be sealed should be ashamed of him/herself. I’d really like to know how Uncle Sam wants adopted persons will sealed identities to answer the race question. Does the U.S. Government want us to lie or does it expect us to be psychic? |
Mara