Children don't live in averages. They live in neighborhoods, counties, cities and states, where their experiences and opportunities can differ dramatically. Serving communities with good governance requires knowing what is actually happening on the ground. That's true whether you're a member of Congress deciding how to allocate federal funding, a governor directing resources for struggling school districts or a mayor trying to understand why one neighborhood is thriving while another isn't.

None of that work is possible without reliable, detailed information. And for more than 200 years, nearly since our nation’s founding and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the census has been the backbone of reliable information about who lives in the U.S. It has helped policymakers, community leaders and organizations like ours that are dedicated to child well-being answer two essential questions: How are children and families doing? And where are they facing the greatest challenges?

That information system is now at risk. A newly proposed Census Bureau rule would make several significant changes to how the decennial census counts and describes the nation’s population, with particular implications for children in communities that have historically been harder to count. Among them, the rule would eliminate questions about race and ethnicity on the decennial census — the one population count Congress requires every 10 years, and an important bedrock for population estimates used in improving accuracy in other federal surveys.

Removing these questions from the census would make it much harder to access data on race and ethnicity consistently and accurately over time. This isn’t the only threat to important information that leaders rely on. The Census Bureau has also delayed the release of data from the American Community Survey, now scheduled for Oct. 29.

The American Community Survey annually produces detailed local estimates on income, poverty, education, health insurance and housing costs that the decennial census cannot capture on its own. Policymakers from governors to school boards all rely on American Community Survey data to draft budgets and develop programs. Foundations like ours rely on it too, using data to guide decisions and understand where children are thriving, where they are struggling and where attention is needed.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s “KIDS COUNT Data Book” relies heavily on American Community Survey estimates to track how children are faring, state by state and across the nation. National averages that appear to be improving can conceal a very different reality. Child poverty can fall overall while remaining stubbornly high in particular communities. More children can gain health coverage while children in some groups lose it.

For example, the official child poverty rate fell by 2 percentage points between 2019 and 2024 to 15 percent. But the statistic, derived from the American Community Survey, looked very different across states, communities and demographic groups. In West Virginia, 22 percent of children lived in poverty during 2024; in New Hampshire, just 7 percent did. When those differences are harder to see, the consequences are real. Childcare assistance may not reach communities where families are struggling most with costs, housing investments can miss neighborhoods under the greatest pressure and policymakers can conclude that a program is working even when some children are being left behind.

Scarce public resources are harder to target effectively when leaders cannot clearly and accurately see where needs are greatest or whether investments are effective.

Knowing a child’s race or ethnicity does not tell us what that child can achieve or what that family needs but examining outcomes across groups helps reveal whether progress is reaching everyone, and whether policies are working as intended. Taken together, these two developments point to the same underlying trend: a shrinking ability to see our children and families clearly, at a moment when sound, targeted and effective policymaking depends on it most. Children are already easy to overlook in our political process.

They cannot vote. Many are too young to speak for themselves. They do not choose their neighborhood, their family’s income, their school’s resources or the opportunities within their reach. Adults decide on all of these things. That gives those who make decisions for children a particular responsibility to understand how they are actually doing, and that means the data behind those decisions deserves protection, not neglect. Today’s children are tomorrow’s employees, customers, employers, voters and community leaders — and their success will shape the strength of our economy and our country.

Members of Congress, state officials, mayors, business leaders and others who depend on Census data should examine the impact these changes will have on the communities they serve — and emphasize the importance of receiving detailed, reliable information on schedule. Debates about reducing child poverty, improving schools, strengthening families or creating pathways to work all depend on real data and shared facts. That starts with counting and seeing every child fully, reliably, consistently and on time. Lisa Lawson is president and CEO at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. La June Montgomery Tabron is president and CEO at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.