The 2010 Census has significant implications for child education programs. 2010 census data will have a direct affect on how more than 0 billion annually is allocated to tribal, local and state governments over the next 10 years. In order for this money to be allocated accurately and fairly, the decennial census must count everybody, count him or her in the right place and count him or her only once.

Census data are used in a number of ways to help improve child education programs and provide for our school children. This data is used to help policymakers address specific functions, for example needs and challenges students might face in their communities. This includes determining new school construction, drawing school district boundaries, determining illiteracy levels as well as the socio-economic conditions of school-age individuals, providing proper aid to schools that serve students with limited English proficiency and measuring changes in education levels across districts and communities so employers can correctly determine where to locate job training as well as new jobs. Furthermore, this data is used to properly allocate roughly billion annually in child education program funding.

There are certain child education programs that benefit directly from census data. The census data provides district, state and federal governments with benchmarks for determining child education program eligibility and for applying financial aid allocation formulas. Census data is also used in the allocation of funding for the following child education programs: special education preschool programs; Safe and Drug Free Schools programs; Title I grants to local education agencies; reforming secondary and elementary school programs that serve Native American children; Improving Teacher Quality State Grants; Title III grants to local child education program agencies to supplement services for English language learners; Impact Aid; rural child education programs; educational technology grants; Comprehensive School Reform Program; and Even Start.

Read the rest of this entry »