2000 Census: Actions Taken to Improve the Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance Center Programs (Letter Report, 02/25/2000, GAO/GGD-00-47).
The Census Bureau has added several initiatives to improve the accuracy
and completeness of the population count in the 2000 Census. These
initiatives include the "Be Counted" program as well as walk-in
Questionnaire Assistance Centers. The Be Counted program is designed to
count people who believe that they did not receive a census
questionnaire, or who were otherwise omitted from the census. Aimed at
traditionally hard-to-enumerate population groups, the Be Counted
program is to make its forms available in various public locations, such
as community centers, churches, and businesses. Questionnaire Assistance
Centers are to help people--especially those who speak little or no
English--complete their census questionnaires by providing assistance in
several languages on a walk-in basis. The centers are also to distribute
Be Counted forms. This report provides information on the status of
these two programs, focusing on the steps that the Bureau has taken to
address shortcomings that it encountered during the dress rehearsal.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: GGD-00-47
TITLE: 2000 Census: Actions Taken to Improve the Be Counted and
Questionnaire Assistance Center Programs
DATE: 02/25/2000
SUBJECT: Census
Surveys
Reporting requirements
Population statistics
Government information dissemination
Federal forms
Minorities
Immigrants
IDENTIFIER: 2000 Decennial Census
Census Bureau Be Counted Program
Census Bureau Questionnaire Assistance Center Program
Census Bureau Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Operation
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GAO/GGD-00-47
United States General Accounting Office
GAO
Report to the Subcommittee on the Census,
Committee on Government Reform, House of
Representatives
February 2000
GAO/GGD-00-47
2000 CENSUS
Actions Taken to Improve the Be Counted and
Questionnaire Assistance Center Programs
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B-284468
Page 11GAO/GGD-00-47 Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance Center Programs
B-284468
February 25, 2000
The Honorable Dan Miller
Chairman
The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on the Census
Committee on Government Reform
House of Representatives
The Bureau of the Census has included a number
of coverage improvement initiatives in the 2000
Census that are designed to help increase the
accuracy and completeness of the population
count. These initiatives include a program
called Be Counted as well as the opening of walk-
in Questionnaire Assistance Centers. The Be
Counted program is designed to count people who
believe they did not receive a census
questionnaire, or who were otherwise not
included in the census. Aimed at traditionally
hard-to-enumerate population groups, the Be
Counted program is to make its forms available
in various public locations, such as community
centers, churches, and businesses. Questionnaire
Assistance Centers are to help people-especially
those with little or no English-speaking
ability-complete their census questionnaires by
providing assistance in various languages on a
walk-in basis. The centers are also to
distribute Be Counted forms. Both programs were
tested as part of the Bureau's 1998 dress
rehearsal for the 2000 Census.1
As agreed with your offices, this report
provides information on the status of the Be
Counted and Questionnaire Assistance Center
programs, paying particular attention to the steps
the Bureau has taken to address certain
shortcomings that the Bureau encountered during
the dress rehearsal. To obtain the information,
we interviewed Bureau officials from headquarters
and local offices responsible for planning and
implementing the two programs, as well as local
government officials who helped the Bureau execute
the dress rehearsal; made on-site inspections of
Be Counted program locations and Questionnaire
Assistance Centers at the Sacramento and South
Carolina dress rehearsal sites; and examined
relevant Bureau documents and data, including the
Bureau's May 1999 evaluation of the Be Counted
program. We also reviewed evaluations by the
Department of Commerce Inspector General of how
the dress rehearsal Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance Center programs performed. We prepared
this report in Washington, D.C., between December
1999 and January 2000 in accordance with generally
accepted government auditing standards.
Results in Brief
The Bureau has taken several important steps to
improve the Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance Center programs following the dress
rehearsal. The Bureau's actions were necessary
because the Bureau found that although the Be
Counted program added people to the population
totals, the program sites were not well targeted
and people may have had trouble finding Be Counted
forms in places where they were supposed to be
available. The Bureau's findings are consistent
with our observations during the dress rehearsal
that processes and procedures used to select,
staff, and monitor site locations did not always
achieve their intended results.
The Bureau's actions to improve the programs
include providing its Regional Census Centers with
guidance on selecting and operating sites, as well
as developing a form for Bureau staff to track the
services provided by Questionnaire Assistance
Centers on a daily basis, to help ensure that they
are providing intended services.
The 85,221 Be Counted forms distributed at the
three dress rehearsal sites added 1,477 people to
the population totals, or about 0.14 percent of
the total population of the three sites. The
Bureau found that, compared with traditional mail
return procedures, the Be Counted forms were more
likely to include members of such typically
undercounted populations as minority groups and
the young.
If effectively implemented, the Bureau's actions
could address the operational shortcomings it
encountered during the dress rehearsal, by making
the two programs more visible and accessible to
traditionally undercounted populations.
Nevertheless, some uncertainties remain. Key
among them is whether the Bureau will open as many
program sites as it originally planned and whether
it has the ability to monitor and maintain them.
Background
Counting the 274 million people estimated to
comprise the nation depends, in large part, on the
Bureau's ability to "find" every U.S. household,
and on people's willingness to be included in the
census. However, the Bureau has found that
enumerating people with no usual place of
residence, those with limited English skills, and
certain other population groups, is a particular
challenge. To help overcome these obstacles, the
Bureau plans a number of coverage improvement
programs largely aimed at collecting census data
from these special populations. Two such
initiatives are the Be Counted program and the
walk-in Questionnaire Assistance Centers.
The Bureau developed the Be Counted program to
enumerate people who believe they did not receive
a census questionnaire, or were otherwise not
included in the census. The program also allows
people who had no usual residence on Census Day,
such as transients, migrants, or seasonal farm
workers, to be included in the census. The Be
Counted form is a short-form questionnaire
specially modified to allow the Bureau to process
and match the forms to the census results. The
Bureau plans to place Be Counted forms in
community centers, churches, businesses, and other
public locations.
The Bureau estimates it will spend about $2.6
million to print the forms, and another $4.2
million to hire up to 8 clerical staff for each of
its 520 local census offices to stock and maintain
the sites. Most of the forms will be in English,
but the Bureau also plans to print forms in
Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean.
The Bureau expects to distribute about 10 million
forms during the course of the Be Counted program,
which is scheduled to run from the end of
questionnaire mailout until just before
nonresponse follow-up (March 31 through April 11,
2000).
During the 1990 Census, the Bureau had a program
it called "Were You Counted" that also distributed
census questionnaires to the public. However,
according to the Bureau, because the forms were
not made available until the nonresponse follow-up
period, the program was ineffective in collecting
additional census data. Moreover, the public had
to actively seek the forms by calling the Bureau.
The Bureau also plans to open Questionnaire
Assistance Centers that are aimed at increasing
coverage by helping people-especially those with
language barriers-complete their census
questionnaires by providing assistance in various
languages on a walk-in basis. Assistance guides in
37 languages that are designed to help people
complete their English language forms, as well as
large-print English guides, are to be available at
all Questionnaire Assistance Centers. Assistance
guides in 12 additional languages will be
available at selected centers based on specific
local needs. The centers are also to distribute Be
Counted forms and remain open from March 8 (when
questionnaires are to be first delivered) through
April 14, 2000. The Bureau budgeted about $24
million for operating the centers in fiscal year
2000.
The Dress Rehearsal Operations Suggested
Opportunities for Improvements
About 1,500 persons, or 0.14 percent of the
population totals, were added to the dress
rehearsal population counts from Be Counted forms,
as shown in table 1. According to the Bureau,
these people would not have been included in the
census had it not been for the Be Counted program.
Moreover, according to a Bureau evaluation, the Be
Counted forms were more likely to include members
of minority groups and the young-two traditionally
undercounted populations-when compared to the
traditional mail return forms. For example, in
Sacramento, the Bureau found that the Be Counted
population was about 30 percent Asian, compared to
about 17 percent Asian in the mail return
population. African Americans represented about 20
percent of the Be Counted population, compared to
about 13 percent in the mail return population.
In South Carolina, 46 percent of the Be Counted
population was African American, compared to 33
percent in the mail return population.
Table 1: Results of the Be Counted Program
Sacramento South Menominee Total
Carolina
Number of Be Counted sites 218 183 16 417
Number of forms made 24,249 59,272 1,700 85,221
available
Number of forms picked up 9,339 10,647 56 20,042
Number of forms returned 1,304 550 20 1,874
Number of returned forms 326 247 5 578
included in the census
Number of addresses added to 140 218 2 360
the censusa
Total number of housing units 158,281 273,497 2,046 433,824
at dress rehearsal site
Percentage of dress rehearsal 0.09% 0.08% 0.10% 0.08%
site housing units added by
Be Counted program
Number of people added 836 625 16 1,477
Dress rehearsal population 403,313 662,140 4,738 1,070,191
count
Percentage of population 0.21% 0.09% 0.34% 0.14%
added by Be Counted program
aThis number includes addresses added by Be
Counted forms completed as part of the Bureau's
Telephone Questionnaire Assistance (TQA)
operation, where census interviewers could take
responses over the telephone from persons who did
not have a questionnaire with a census
identification number. The Bureau was unable to
separate out Be Counted forms submitted through
TQA.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Table 1 also shows that the Be Counted program
"found" 360 addresses that would have otherwise
been missed in the dress rehearsal. These
addresses represent about 0.08 percent of the
total number of housing unit addresses at the
three dress rehearsal sites.
Overall, a Bureau evaluation of the Be Counted
program concluded that it was generally successful
in adding people to the census totals.2 However,
the evaluation expressed concern over the
"moderate" percentage of forms picked up by the
public compared to the number of forms the Bureau
distributed at the three sites, as well as the
progressively smaller number of forms returned to
the Bureau for processing, and the number of forms
ultimately included in the census (the Bureau did
not formally evaluate the Questionnaire Assistance
Centers). The Bureau attributed these results to
the fact that people often had trouble finding the
Be Counted forms in places where they were
supposed to be available. According to the
Bureau, the Be Counted sites appeared to be in
locations that were poorly targeted and
publicized.
The results of our own on-site inspections of Be
Counted and Questionnaire Assistance Center
locations during the dress rehearsal and
subsequent interviews with Bureau officials,
indicated that there were shortcomings with (1)
the procedures used to screen and select
particular sites, (2) the degree to which the
sites were visible to passers-by, (3) the adequacy
of the Bureau's recordkeeping and monitoring of
the sites, and (4) the Bureau's ability to keep
Questionnaire Assistance Centers properly staffed.
Since the dress rehearsal, the Bureau has taken a
number of steps that, if effectively implemented,
could improve the two programs by giving them more
structure and organization.
Site Selection Procedures
The procedures used to select Be Counted and
Questionnaire Assistance Center locations will be
critical to the effectiveness of the two programs
because they will affect the extent to which sites
are easily accessible to targeted population
groups. According to Bureau officials, for the
2000 Census, sites are to be selected through a
joint effort between Bureau employees, called
partnership specialists, and local partners,
including representatives of state and local
governments, community organizations, and Complete
Count Committees (which are to consist of
representatives of local government, religious,
media, education, and other community groups).
Local partners are to use their knowledge of the
community to help identify where Be Counted forms
and Questionnaire Assistance Centers might be
needed, while partnership specialists are to work
with local partners in selecting the sites and
making them operational. The Bureau also plans to
use a database containing information from the
1990 Census and other sources to help identify
potentially hard-to-enumerate areas that could be
flagged as possible Be Counted/Questionnaire
Assistance Center locations.
The importance of close cooperation between the
Bureau and local partners in selecting program
sites was demonstrated during the dress rehearsal,
when the effectiveness of the sites appeared to
diminish when one group or the other had a limited
role in the selection process. For example,
according to a Bureau official, in South Carolina,
although the Bureau asked the Complete Count
Committees to suggest Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance Center locations, the Bureau was not
always satisfied with the proposed locations. The
official noted that several volunteer fire
companies made the site list, even though they
were only open to the public on a limited basis.
Nevertheless, the Bureau accepted the results to
accommodate local partners.
Sacramento encountered program site selection
problems as well. For example, according to the
Department of Commerce Inspector General, although
the Bureau sought to consult with local partners
to target Be Counted sites in undercounted and non-
English-speaking neighborhoods, local partners
provided few suggestions on locations and little
advice on where to place foreign language forms.
As a result, Sacramento census managers chose the
Be Counted sites themselves, with mixed results.3
Since the dress rehearsal, the Bureau has taken
several steps that could improve program site
selection procedures. For example, the Bureau has
developed guidelines containing factors to
consider in selecting and operating sites, such as
using mobile Questionnaire Assistance Centers in
rural areas and making Be Counted forms available
in multiunit dwellings in urban locations.
Moreover, Bureau staff are to visit Be Counted and
Questionnaire Assistance sites in advance to
ensure that they are acceptable.
Still, significant uncertainties remain. Key among
these is the willingness of local partners to help
in the selection process. Taking a census is a
shared national undertaking requiring the active
participation of individuals, organizations, and
governments. However, the dress rehearsal
demonstrated that the level of cooperation may be
inconsistent and beyond the Bureau's ability to
conclusively influence. For example, as
previously noted, the Bureau expects to work with
Complete Count Committees. However, while the
Bureau had invited all 39,000 local and tribal
governments across the nation to form committees,
according to the Bureau, as of early February
2000, about 12,000 committees have been
established.
In addition, questions surround the Bureau's
ability to open as many sites as it originally
planned, which could affect the likelihood that
targeted groups will be able to find them. The
Bureau anticipated setting up as many as 66,895 Be
Counted locations, or about one Be Counted site
for each census tract or neighborhood. Of these,
34,725 were to be stand-alone sites, and the
remainder were to be located in each of the 32,170
Questionnaire Assistance Centers the Bureau
expected to establish. However, the Bureau appears
to be falling short of these objectives. According
to Bureau data as of February 9, 2000, local
partners had committed to 13,171 Be Counted sites,
(about 38 percent of the 34,725 sites
anticipated), and 18,383 Questionnaire Assistance
Centers (about 57 percent of the 32,170 facilities
anticipated). Although the Bureau expects to
establish more sites, little time remains to
achieve its objectives.
Program Site Visibility
"Street-level" visibility will be an important
feature of the Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance Center programs, because their
effectiveness is directly related to peoples'
ability to find them. The importance of visibility
was demonstrated during the dress rehearsal, when
the Be Counted program sites and Questionnaire
Assistance Centers tended to be more visible in
Sacramento and Menominee than in South Carolina.
As shown on the left-hand page of figure 1, in
Sacramento, Be Counted sites and Questionnaire
Assistance Centers were located in such prominent
places as shopping centers, ethnic markets, and
government buildings that were highly visible to
passers-by. For example, at the Sacramento City
School District's Skills and Business Education
Center, a large blue sign posted on a bulletin
board notified visitors that a Questionnaire
Assistance Center was located in the building.
In contrast, on the right-hand page of figure 1,
the South Carolina sites were generally less
prominent. In those locations we visited, there
generally was nothing to indicate that census
questionnaires or assistance was available at the
site. For example (from top to bottom), at one of
the Be Counted sites we visited, a homeless
shelter in Fairfield County, census forms were
indeed available, but no signs publicized their
existence. In addition, the forms were on top of
a filing cabinet located behind a receptionist's
desk, and thus would have likely gone unnoticed by
visitors. Secondly, in a Questionnaire Assistance
Center located at the Veterans Service Office in
the Department of Veterans Affairs in Columbia, no
signs were posted, in either the lobby of the
building or in the office itself, to indicate to
passers-by that they could obtain census
questionnaires and help in completing their forms.
Finally, in the bottom photo, the forms were
placed in a reception area on the lowermost
shelves of a magazine rack that contained, in
addition to the forms, pamphlets on items of
interest to veterans-and thus could have been
overlooked.
Figure 1: Importance of Program Site Visibility
Source: GAO.
To help make the Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance Center sites more visible for the 2000
Census, the Bureau has, among other actions,
developed a template for a memorandum of
understanding that the Bureau and local partners
are to complete and sign. The memorandum commits
both parties to, among other actions, publicizing
the dates, locations, and hours of operation of
the Questionnaire Assistance Centers in the local
media.
Recordkeeping and Monitoring
Keeping Be Counted and Questionnaire Assistance
Center site information up-to-date and tracking
usage will be key to making sure that people will
be able to obtain forms when and where they are
supposed to be available. For 2000, this task is
to be assigned to Bureau personnel called Office
Operations Supervisors. Each of the Bureau's 520
local offices is to have one supervisor. And, as
noted earlier, local offices are also to have the
authority to hire up to eight clerks to assist the
supervisor.
The importance of good recordkeeping and
monitoring was demonstrated in South Carolina
where, according to the Bureau, because of South
Carolina's difficulties in keeping program site
information current, people had trouble obtaining
forms where they were supposed to be located. For
example, many of the sites on an initial Be
Counted list were there because of commitments
made by organizations in the Fall of 1997. By the
time the dress rehearsal occurred the following
April, some sites had decided not to participate,
while in other cases either the volunteers or the
locations had changed. Although the local
partnership specialists were instructed to update
the lists of Be Counted and Questionnaire
Assistance sites on a weekly basis, in some cases
this timetable proved insufficient because changes
took place more frequently. As a result, such
essential information as changes to program site
locations or points of contact were not always
reflected in the Bureau's Be Counted/Questionnaire
Assistance Center database. Further, the database
contained several typographical and entry errors,
and in several instances where an organization
(e.g., a senior citizens center) had multiple
facilities within the dress rehearsal area, the
Bureau incorrectly assumed that since one site had
committed to being a Be Counted or Questionnaire
Assistance Center location, all the facilities had
done so, and thus all were listed as active sites
in the Bureau's database. In another instance, the
addresses of several women's shelters, which were
supposed to remain confidential, were included on
a list of Be Counted sites.
The degree to which the Bureau will be able to
track activity at each Be Counted and
Questionnaire Assistance Center site will be
determined, in large part, by the extent to which
the number of sites is aligned with the logistical
support available from local census offices. This
fact was made clear during the dress rehearsal
when, according to the Department of Commerce
Inspector General, the number of Be Counted sites
selected (218, as noted in table 1) was far more
than Bureau staff could effectively manage. Local
managers intended to monitor demand at the sites,
but found that they did not have the resources
available to do so. As a result, Sacramento was
unable to identify poorly performing sites and
possibly relocate them to more appropriate areas.4
In response, the Bureau issued guidelines
highlighting the responsibility that local census
offices have for updating site lists and
monitoring usage, and developed a timeline for
conducting specific tasks, such as resupplying
sites with materials. The Bureau also developed a
new, on-line form that is to track the services
provided by each Questionnaire Assistance Center
on a daily basis to make sure that each location
is functioning properly and is appropriately
staffed.
Nevertheless, keeping up with the workload
required for a rigorous monitoring effort could
prove challenging for the Bureau, especially if it
comes close to establishing as many program sites
as it had originally planned. The clerks who are
to maintain the sites are to be responsible for
(1) making advance visits to each location, (2)
providing information to the Office Operations
Supervisor to update and revise the Be Counted
site list when necessary, (3) placing the Be
Counted containers and resupplying them as
required, and (4) picking up the containers at the
end of the operation. In addition, when a
Questionnaire Assistance Center is involved,
Bureau employees are to complete the memorandum of
understanding with local partners and help secure
enough volunteers to staff each location. Although
Bureau officials told us that the Be Counted and
Questionnaire Assistance Center programs are "low
maintenance" operations, the dress rehearsal
suggested that the use of a large number of sites
could overwhelm local staff.
Staffing Questionnaire Assistance Centers
The quality of service provided by Questionnaire
Assistance Centers will depend heavily on the
Bureau's ability to adequately staff the centers.
For 2000, the Bureau plans to use a mixture of
paid and volunteer staff. According to Bureau
officials, each of the Bureau's 520 local census
offices will be allowed to use up to 4,000 staff
hours to staff Questionnaire Assistance Centers.
The remaining positions are to be filled by
volunteers.5
The significance of having adequate staffing was
evident during the dress rehearsal. South
Carolina relied on volunteers to staff Be Counted
and Questionnaire Assistance Center sites, while
Sacramento used paid temporary census employees
who had received enumerator training from the
Bureau. According to Bureau officials, Sacramento
was better able to staff its sites, while South
Carolina encountered a variety of problems. For
example, according to Bureau officials, local
partners and partnership specialists had
difficulty finding volunteers to staff the
assistance centers in South Carolina, in part
because the Bureau was simultaneously recruiting
for paid positions. Further, because the South
Carolina volunteers could set their work hours, in
some cases their hours of work were more limited
than the hours of operation of the facility that
housed the assistance center. Turnover among the
volunteers also adversely affected the services
that the Be Counted and Questionnaire Assistance
Centers provided, as well as making it difficult
to publicize the Questionnaire Assistance Centers
because the Bureau could not know for certain when
volunteers would be available to assist the
public.
The memorandum of understanding that the Bureau
and local partners are to sign could help
alleviate some of these staffing problems. For
example, local partners are to commit to providing
questionnaire assistance at specific times in
particular languages. This could help ensure more
consistent and better quality service. Also, the
Bureau is to make funds available specifically for
hiring a limited number of assistance center
staff, which should make the Bureau less reliant
on volunteers and better able to hire employees
with needed language and other skills.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation
On January 18, 2000, we discussed this report with
senior Bureau officials. They generally agreed
with our findings. On February 2, 2000, we
requested comments on a draft of this report from
the Secretary of Commerce by February 9, 2000.
None were provided.
We are sending copies of this report to the
Honorable William M. Daley, Secretary of Commerce,
and the Honorable Kenneth Prewitt, Director of the
Bureau of the Census. Copies will be made
available to others on request.
Please contact me on (202) 512-8676 if you have
any questions. Key contributors to this report
were Robert Goldenkoff, Victoria E. Miller, and
Marcia McWreath.
J. Christopher Mihm
Associate Director, Federal Management
and Workforce Issues
_______________________________
1 The dress rehearsal for the 2000 Census was held
at three sites: Sacramento, CA; 11 counties in the
Columbia, SC, area; and Menominee County in
Wisconsin, including the Menominee American Indian
Reservation. Dress Rehearsal Census Day was April
18, 1998. The dress rehearsal was to mirror, to
the extent possible, the Bureau's operations and
procedures planned for 2000 under as close to
census-like conditions as possible.
2 See Census 2000 Dress Rehearsal Evaluation
Memorandum D2, Evaluation of the Be Counted
Program, U.S. Census Bureau, May 1999.
3 Bureau of the Census: Sacramento Dress
Rehearsal Experience Suggests Changes to Improve
Results of the 2000 Decennial Census, U.S.
Department of Commerce, Office of Inspector
General, ESD-10784-8-0001, September 1998.
4 U.S. Department of Commerce, ESD-10784-8-0001.
5 The staffing challenges facing the Bureau for
the 2000 Census are described more fully in
GAO/GGD-00-6.
*** End of document ***