ANCHORAGE (AP) -- More than half of Alaska grandparents living with their grandchildren are mostly responsible for taking care of the children, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The 2000 Census data released Tuesday was collected from more than 430 Alaska communities. People filling out the census long form were asked if the person was living with at least one grandchild, and if so if the person was ''responsible for most of the basic needs'' of the child.
The questions were included as part of the 1997 Welfare Reform Act to collect data concerning a growing trend in the United States of grandparents taking care of grandchildren.
Statewide, 52 percent of grandparents living with grandchildren answered ''yes'' to the second question. The state doesn't track the trend and national census data is not yet available.
While the Census data percentage seems high, there could be several reasons for it, said Cristina Klein, deputy director of the state Division of Senior Services. Alaska, with improved health care, permanent fund dividends and property tax breaks for seniors, has become a more attractive place to retire.
''People are bringing their grandparents up to Alaska,'' she said. ''There is better health care and assisted living and all the services that seniors want.''
Klein also said the high cost of day care was a big factor.
''Grandparents are taking care of grandchildren of working parents,'' she said. ''A lot of work doesn't pay a lot to cover day care.''
Alaska's three large cities are near the state average. Fairbanks was 51 percent, Juneau 47.7 percent and Anchorage 44.7 percent.
In evaluating the data, Alaska's numerous small towns and villages could be providing a skewed picture, said Lexi Hill, a research associate at the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research.
The Census Bureau has said the estimates in general are accurate for communities with populations over 5,000.
To make sure that Native Alaskans were adequately represented, every other household in rural Alaska received the long form as opposed to one in six households elsewhere, said Linda Clark, the Census Bureau's data specialist for Alaska. The short form did not contain the grandparent questions.
Native grandparents are very involved in bringing up the grandchildren, said Margaret Glastetter, a service coordinator at the Barrow Senior Center, where most of the clients are Eskimo.
If anything, the 56-year-old Glastetter said the percentage has gone down since she was a child in Barrow living with her grandparents and 10 other relatives in a small house.
According to the data, 57.1 percent of Barrow grandparents said they were mostly responsible for the grandchildren in the home.
''It probably went down,'' Glastetter said. ''At one point it was probably 100 percent.''
The picture of rural Alaska is incomplete until questions are asked of a whole other group of grandparents, Hill said.
''Grandparents living next door could be doing the same thing as grandparents living in the home, especially in village Alaska where kids run all over the place,'' she said.
In addition, Hill said the phrase ''responsible for most of the basic needs'' is fairly subjective.
''It may tell us more about their attitudes toward their children than how responsible they need to be for their grandchildren,'' she said.
Clark agreed the question is ''subject to interpretation,'' but said the Census Bureau tries to pose questions as neutrally as possible.
''If we start telling people what we mean we are already coloring the question,'' Clark said.
Norma Niclas, director of the XYZ Senior Citizens' Center in Nome where 98 percent of clients are Native, said the percentage seems high. She estimated it is about 25 percent.
In Nome, 71.4 percent of grandparents answered yes to the second question.
''Being Native they are used to multiple generation households,'' Niclas said. ''They are used to having the whole family with them.''
At the Anchorage Senior Center where most of the members are white, the percentage is far lower, probably less than 5 percent, said executive director Billie Lewis.
Feedback on how well the grandparent questions work will be used to perhaps improve the question when the Census is taken again in 10 years, Clark said.
