Unit Statistics Report - Households with Single Parent and Youth or Children

I've been asked to look into an incorrect statistic in our MLS. When I run the report under
- Leader & Clerk Resources'
- Reports Menu
- Select 'Unit Statistics Report'
I show the incorrect number of 'Households with Single Parent and Youth or Children'. The value is two less than it should be. I'm not sure why two families with single mothers don't show up under that part of the report.

The first thing I would do is a Send/Receive from MLS to make sure it has the latest data from Church headquarters. Then look at all the households that you believe should show as single-parent households. Is it possible they were married and a divorce has occurred but has not been recorded in MLS or LCR? If true, they will not show as single parents because MLS would still show them as married. To fix that, you will need to record the divorce (per policy) and then do a send/receive. That should correct the report.

If the above is not the case, the next thing I would do is look to see if the two you are referring to are listed as the head of their own household and not listed in someone else's household. If they are not a head of household, I wonder if the report is filtering them off even though they are a single parent (because it might be looking only at the household parents and if they are a child in their parent's household it may not consider that they might be a single parent in their own right).

If you click on the number in the report it will give you a list of those families. That will help you track down which two are not included. Once you know which families you can troubleshoot why they wouldn't be on the list. I would check that the spouse isn't still listed and that the children are actually in the household as the first things to check.

Are the mothers actually single?

View the member information for the mothers. Click on the family tab and see if there is a marriage listed. If there is a marriage listed, she is not single.

If the divorce has been finalized, you can change the marriage status to record the divorce. If the divorce has not been finalized, you will just need to remember that the family won't be included in that statistic until the divorce is finalized and recorded.

I'm sure to be in that statistic, she will have to have children in the household. It's not enough for her to have children listed on her membership record, there has to be a record for each child and they have to be in her household. We've seen clerks get confused between being listed on the parent's record (as genealogy) and having a record for that child.

This tends to be an issue with convert families - the parent is baptized and children noted, but no record was created for the children. As a result, they don't appear in any Primary class rolls.

Looking at my ward, I see the opposite problem from what the OP mentioned. Clicking through the Unit Statistics Report brings up a man who has no children (and is therefore not a single parent) but does have younger siblings living in his house.

It appears that the problem was a combinations of these two things:
- Per the suggestion of user 'davesudweeks' the divorce status of one of the Sisters was not recorded
- The reason for the other family was the non-member children have not been added to her household

Thanks for the help,
Marc

I don't seem to be able to add her children to her household. Her children are not members (the father won't let them join) but do live with her. It appears that this sister (that is a member) does not show up in the report unless she has children listed under her household. I added them to her family, but that didn't do the trick.

Question is it possible to add non-member children to her house hold?

In this case the children can only be added to the sister's membership record as her children for genealogical purposes. To add a child to a household requires the child to have a membership record number (MRN). Nonmembers cannot be added to a household. This feature was removed several years ago.

smedlytonker wrote:the father won't let them join

Per General Handbook 33.6.2, if he doesn't have legal custody, that doesn't matter.