By Maria Altman, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis, MO. – The head of the U.S. census count in 2010 was in St. Louis Tuesday to launch a national school initiative.
Dr. Robert Groves says the Census is reaching out to kids in hopes that they'll encourage their parents to complete the form and send it back next April.
Groves says they've developed brief lesson plans about the census for teachers K-12.
"It's in multiple languages, we're reaching out much more actively than we ever have before," Groves said. "And we're really quite hopeful that especially in immigrant families that the kids understanding the role of the census in U.S. society will be a great facilitator for participation."
Missouri Congressman William Lacy Clay says the census is important because each person missed in the census in St. Louis means the city will lose about $12,000 from the federal government over the next decade.
And he says if the population declines in Missouri and goes up elsewhere, the state could lose a Congressional seat.