Review of 2020 Operational Plan Schedule August 17, 2020 Albert E. Fontenot, Jr., Associate Director for Decennial Census Programs Timothy P. Olson Associate Director for Field Operations 2020CENSUS.GOV Operational Timelines: Original and Pandemic-Adjusted Activity / Operation Original Dates Update Leave (Stateside) March 15 – April 17 Phased re-opening occurred between May 4 and June 12 Service Based Enumeration March 30 – April 1 September 22 – 24 Targeted Non-Sheltered Outdoor Locations March 31 – April 1 September 23 – 24 Group Quarters Enumeration April 2 – June 5 Replan Dates April 2 – September 3 Enumeration of Transitory Locations April 9 – May 4 September 3 – 28 Nonresponse Followup* May 13 – July 31 Delivery of Apportionment Data** By Statutory Deadline: December 31, 2020 By Statutory Deadline: December 31, 2020 Delivery Redistricting Data** By Statutory Deadline: March 30, 2021 Plan in Development August 9 – September 30 *For a period of time, NRFU was 8/11/20-10/31/20. **For a period of time, delivery of apportionment data by 4/30/21 and redistricting data by 7/31/21, were considered. 2 2020CENSUS.GOV Self-Response Rate Summary As of 11:59pm August 16, 2020 Total Self-Response Rate: 63.8% Total Responding Housing Units: 94.3M Responses by mode: 75.4M (80.0%) – Internet 17.5M (18.5%) – Paper 1.4M (1.5%) – Phone 3 2020CENSUS.GOV Update Leave – Status Update Operation: The Update Leave (UL) operation is designed to occur in areas where the majority of housing units either do not have mail delivered to the physical location of the housing unit, or the mail delivery information for the housing unit cannot be verified. A Census Bureau employee physically delivers a 2020 Census invitation to these housing units and updates the census address list. Nonresponding households will be visited by an enumerator during nonresponse followup. Workload: • Update Leave Original Workload (does not change): 6,805,523 housing units • Workload Completed as of March 18 (date field operations were suspended): 736,320 housing units • Percentage Completed at suspension: 10.8% • The Update Leave workload was completed on August 10, 2020 Response Rates: • Total Responses (as of August 16): 2,368,445 (34.8%) • Internet: 1,237,408 (52.2%) • Paper: 1,083,720 (45.8%) • Phone: 47,317 (2.0%) 4 2020CENSUS.GOV Group Quarters Enumeration – Status Update Operation: Group Quarters Enumeration is the U.S. Census Bureau's special process for counting people who live or stay in group quarters during the 2020 Census. Because group quarters are owned or managed by a third party, the Census Bureau assists group quarters administrators in responding to the census on behalf of residents to ensure a complete and accurate census count. Group Quarters Enumeration Progress* Initial GQs Workload Added Current Completed & Current Percent Workload Closed Workload Completed & Cases Closed 195,656 212,065 16,409 *As of August 16, 2020 5 2020CENSUS.GOV 174,539 37,526 82.3% 2020 Census Service-Based Enumeration (SBE) Overview Background The SBE operation is conducted at service-based locations and targeted non-sheltered outdoor locations (TNSOLs) to enumerate people experiencing homelessness. These service locations include: emergency and transitional shelters (with sleeping facilities) for people experiencing homelessness, soup kitchens, and regularly scheduled mobile food vans. Prior to operational adjustments made in lieu of COVID-19, SBE was scheduled to be conducted March 30 – April 1. Consulted With Major Stakeholders • In late May/early June we consulted with 67 national and local organizations to assist the Census Bureau in determining the best date to conduct SBE/TNSOL. Determining an optimal date to conduct SBE took into consideration the need to conduct a thorough and accurate enumeration, while also understanding the needs of our external partners, which are crucial during SBE. • Operational Decision • Based on the feedback from our stakeholders, input from Census experts, and consultation with operational team leads, we have selected September 22 – 24 as the dates to conduct SBE and TNSOL. Current Status • • Updating TNSOLs locations and making appointments with service providers in early September. Finalizing training plans for approximately 45,000 SBE field staff. 6 2020CENSUS.GOV Nonresponse Followup Field Operations Early Start of Nonresponse Followup Operations 6 Cycle 1a Area Census Offices (ACOs) began operations on July 16 6 Cycle 1b ACOs began operations on July 23 35 Cycle 2 ACOs were scheduled to begin operations on July 30; however, we started operations earlier in some ACOs where staff was available: • 17 ACOs – Started July 26 – 29 • 18 ACOs – Started July 30 39 Cycle 3 ACOs were scheduled to begin operations by August 3: • 15 ACOs – Started July 31 • 16 ACOs – Started August 1 • 8 ACOs – Started August 3 All remaining ACOs were scheduled to begin August 11, but all began operations by August 9: • 107 ACOs – Started August 3 – 7 • 55 ACOs (all remaining) – August 9 As of August 9 Nonresponse Followup Operations have started in all 248 ACOs 7 2020CENSUS.GOV Safety during Field Activities On August 7, in a joint statement from the Census Bureau and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Conducting 2020 Census Non-Response FollowUp Interviews, the CDC stated that participation in 2020 Census interviews should present a low risk of transmission of COVID-19. Census takers are trained to rigorously and universally follow these CDC recommendations to mitigate risk of transmission: • • • • Wearing of face masks. Maintaining social distance of 6 ft. or more. Practicing hand hygiene. Not entering homes, and conducting interviews outside as much as possible or practical. 8 2020CENSUS.GOV Providing an Apportionment Count Objective: The Census Bureau was tasked to develop a plan to provide an apportionment count by the statutory deadline of December 31, 2020. • Achieving an acceptable level of accuracy and completeness, with a goal of resolving at least 99% of Housing Units in every state, comparable with previous censuses. • Maintaining original contact strategy for occupied housing units. Field activities, including number of attempts to contact respondents, will not be changed. • Maximizing staff and production hours for field data collection operations to conclude field data collection by September 30, 2020. • Streamlining backend processing to deliver apportionment counts by the statutory deadline of December 31, 2020. 9 2020CENSUS.GOV Nonresponse Followup Field Operations – Current Status Cycle 1A (6 ACOs) began operations on July 16: • 60.9% Percent Complete • 57.9% Percent Goal Cycle 1B (6 ACOs) began operations on July 23: • 50.4% Percent Complete • 47.5% Percent Goal Cycle 2 (35 ACOs) began operations July 26-30: • 41.2% Percent Complete • 36.2% Percent Goal Cycle 3 (39 ACOs) began operations July 31 - August 3: • 19.9% Percent Complete • 11.1% Percent Goal National Metrics (ALL 248 ACOs) Began operations by August 9: National Workload: 61,335,507 HUs Completed Workload: 14,851,615 HUs • 24.2% Percent Complete • 16.9% Percent Goal 10 2020CENSUS.GOV Maintaining Original Contact Strategy We are maintaining the original contact strategy for occupied housing units. Field activities, including number of attempts to contact respondents, will not be changed. • In most cases, census workers will make up to six attempts at each housing unit address to count possible residents. 11 2020CENSUS.GOV Increasing Work Hours from Current Elumerators 12 Nonresponse Followup Employee Award Pay Earn up to an extra $800 on top of your regular pay. ZOZOCENSUS.GOV From August 9? through August Census Field Supervisors and Enumerators who maximize hours worked will have the opportunity.r to earn award pay in addition to their regular pay. Census Fleld Superulsor Award Crlterla - Census Field Supervisors who exceed 32 hours or more per week, between Aug Q-Auu 29. will earn a award. CENSUS Enumerator Award $190 - Enumerators who work between 15 hours 25 hum-5 and 24 hours per week, and complete .25 "mmww'l casesfhour. will earn a $50 award. - Enumerators who work 25 hours or more per week, and complete .25 casesfhour, will earn a 51?? award. . Enumerators who work 25 hours or more per week and complete .25 cases)? hour. between Aug Q-Aug 25,. will earn a 13:5300 award. 15 hours LIE $50 Shape your future START HERE CU: ?tted States ensus 2020 Keeping Staff Levels Up Actions Benefit Inviting More People to Training Over selection rates will address higherthan-expected no-show rates of 35%, bringing us closer to our target initial staffing levels. Continual Replacement Training Expect to conduct replacement training for at least 135K enumerators due to attrition. Projecting over 11,000 additional training sessions. 13 2020CENSUS.GOV Adapting to Dynamic On The Ground Conditions Actions Benefit Implement outbound phone calling to supplement in- Provides an additional method to enumerate hard to reach communities. person contact attempts. Using experienced staff minimizes the need to Expand the use of NRFU Travel Teams: train new staff – particularly in areas where new • Moving teams that have successfully completed their areas to areas requiring additional attention. staff are not available. Extending Mobile Questionnaire Assistance (MQA) • Deploying trained staff to assist with selfresponse in low response areas • Will extend through September 30 Targeted Communications 14 2020CENSUS.GOV Efficiently accelerates closeout process. MQA representatives are in open, public places in the lowest-responding areas of the nation to encourage people to respond to the 2020 Census. Provides a convenient way for the public to get information about the 2020 Census and selfrespond in areas with low response. Continue to promote self-response and cooperation with enumerators by focusing on specific, targeted areas. Ensuring Quality of Data Collected during Field Operations • Employing expanded technical capacity to conduct analytical Re-Interview selection as the basis for the Re-Interview process. • Utilizing new techniques for the 2020 Census to monitoring quality: • Using statistical techniques with professional statisticians and analysts to proactively identify, monitor, evaluate, and resolve quality issues. • Analyzing data and metrics to identify and investigate outliers and other unusual activity. • Increasing efficiency of our strategy for verifying vacant or nonexisting Housing Units. 15 2020CENSUS.GOV Ensuring High Quality Data from the 2020 Census Special teams with expertise from within the entire Census Bureau in the fields of census operations, statistical methodology, acquisition and utilization of administrative records, and in the social, economic, and housing subject areas to supplement the existing expert teams and provide extra focus on data quality. Working Groups Objectives Lead Operational Update Team Existing Teams: Administrative Records Usage Team • Demographic and Housing Reasonableness Review “CUF/CEF” New + Existing Teams: Demographic Analysis and Population Estimates Post Enumeration Survey Current Surveys Field Experience Team* *New team, not previously part of 2020 Census operations 16 2020CENSUS.GOV • Continue current work Identify new/emerging ways to assess and/or ensure quality (real time and post-data collection) Deliverables Operational changes and data quality assessments will be documented by the Data Quality Documentation Team* Post Enumeration Data Processing Professional career staffers at the Census Bureau are evaluating the processes and procedures and incorporating technological developments, such as the improvements in the quality of the Master Address File, to determine how to effectively and accurately deliver apportionment counts by the statutory deadline of December 31, 2020. This staff will be closely monitoring the collection and processing of the data and assessing any potential impacts on accuracy, data quality, and coverage. Further updates on our post enumeration data processing will be provided. 17 2020CENSUS.GOV Implementation of the Presidential Memorandum The Census Bureau has been tasked with developing a legally and methodologically valid process that meets tests of operational feasibility, to accomplish the goals and directives of the Presidential Memorandum to the extent practicable and consistent with applicable law. To achieve this, the Census Bureau will: • Build upon the decades of continuous experience we have working with administrative records. • We will continue full steam ahead with our mission of counting every person, counting them once, and counting them in the right place. 18 2020CENSUS.GOV Thank You Albert E. Fontenot, Jr. Associate Director for Decennial Census Programs Timothy P. Olson Associate Director for Field Operations 19 2020CENSUS.GOV