National Census Day is just one month away, and new resources are available to help kids help themselves get counted.

As Americans this month fulfill their constitutional duty to participate in the decennial census, too many children will not be counted. In fact, children are the demographic group most often missed by this vital population survey. According to a summary of research published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Census 2000 did not count more than 1 million children under the age of 10. African-American and Latino children are two-to-three times more likely than white children to not be counted.

One reason for the undercount is that children are more likely than other residents to live in what the U.S. Census Bureau refers to as “hard-to-count” households. The Census Bureau lists 12 factors related to HTC such as poverty, unemployment, vacant housing, low levels of education, households without telephones, nonspousal households and households on public assistance.

In Indiana, 10 percent of youth live in hard-to-count areas.

Another reason cited by the Casey report is the growing number of children being raised by unmarried parents. “Since these living arrangements are relatively unstable (compared to married-couple families) … it would not be surprising if some children are not being reported in these types of living arrangements.”

Other reasons include the census form itself, which is too short to list all of the residents in large households. And the Casey report warns that the undercount of kids could become even worse during the current housing crisis, with an estimated 2 million children losing their homes to foreclosure.

In response to these challenges, the U.S. Census Bureau has created age-appropriate activity kits for teachers and youth workers to use with children and teens. Through the Census in Schools Web site (www.census.gov/schools), the federal government provides free teaching materials and other resources that also can be used in after-school programs.

For example, teachers and youth workers will find maps, worksheets, lesson plans and teaching guides with activities related to the census. Students can learn how to read data tables, create their own maps, use math to manage census data and write about data trends in their state. Importantly, the activities correlate with national education standards for math, social studies, geography and language arts.

The free activity kits also include Family Take Home Pages for kids to give to their parents or guardians. Thus, in addition to teaching students about the census and how data can be utilized, the “Census in Schools” program encourages kids to encourage the head of their household to fill out and submit the census survey.

As the Casey report notes, adults have a direct opportunity to be counted by participating in the census. Children, however, cannot fill out the census forms themselves. Instead, “children are dependent on others to make sure they are included.” Census in Schools directly helps kids make their case for inclusion.

The Casey report suggests other strategies for increasing the count of children. State and local committees organized to promote the census can collaborate with agencies and programs that serve the poor such as the federal Women, Infants and Children program and Head Start locations.

Census advocates can increase their communication with child care facilities while also partnering with pediatricians, hospitals and other medical professionals to identify children and families at-risk of not being counted.

The consequences are crucial. Data from the census are used to determine political representation, with the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives divvied up based on the population of each state. Indiana, for example, lost a U.S. House seat after the results of Census 2000.

Census data also are used to distribute more than $400 billion through more than 140 programs aimed at providing funding, food, health care and other support for low-income residents, including children. In addition, census results are used to plan for school capacity and to develop other community youth programs.

The official “count day” for the U.S. Census is April 1, 2010. We fool ourselves and harm vulnerable children if we do not make a full effort to ensure full participation in the census.

Kids count, so let’s count all of our kids.

Bill Stanczykiewicz, former Anderson radio sports announcer, is president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute. He can be reached at iyi@iyi.org.