The U.S. Census Bureau reviewed this data product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and approved the disclosure avoidance practices applied to this release. CBDRB-FY22-012

The following items represent changes in the estimation procedures used for school district, county, and state poverty estimates for 2020 relative to the estimation procedures used for 2019. These changes reduce the comparability of the estimates between years and should be considered when making such comparisons. See General Cautions about Comparisons of Estimates and Guidance for Making Year-to-Year Comparisons.

The definition and inventory of county-level entities change on an irregular basis, based on the decisions of state and local governments. SAIPE provides estimates for all county-level entities (excluding Kalawao, Hawaii) that have been in effect for a full calendar year of American Community Survey sample. For the 2020 period, substantial changes occurred, affecting county-level entities in the state of Alaska. For details of those changes, please refer to the Substantial Changes to Counties and County Equivalent Entities. 

There were no changes in the list of state-level entities or methodology in 2020 relative to 2019 estimates.

The SAIPE school district estimates incorporate the latest available boundary updates from the School District Review Program (SDRP), which are updated annually as of the 2019 SDRP. For the 2020 estimates, boundaries were utilized from the 2021 SDRP, which collected boundaries as they existed on January 1, 2021.