first day of school after covid 19 essay

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Going Back to School after Covid-19: Narrative Essay

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Works Cited-

Education: From disruption to recovery. UNESCO. (2021, November 7). Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https:en.unesco.orgcovid19educationresponse.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Guidance for covid-19 prevention in K-12 Schools. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https:www.cdc.govcoronavirus2019-ncovcommunityschools-childcarek-12-guidance.html.

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9 Students Share How They Really Feel About Going Back to School

By Madeleine Burry , Jessica Fregni, and Laura Zingg

August 24, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the country, students, families, and teachers are navigating the new normal of going back to school —while much of the country still shelters in place. Some students are preparing for a return to remote learning. Others are still unsure of how exactly they will be attending school this year.

We spoke with a few students and their family members from different schools around the country to learn what school will look like for them this fall. They shared their personal experiences with remote learning and how they feel about going back to school in the middle of a pandemic.

Missing Everything About School

‘i just carry on about my day with no specific emotion’ syedah asghar, college sophomore, washington, d.c..

Syedah Asghar will begin her second year of college at American University in Washington, D.C., where she studies public relations and strategic communications. After receiving some mixed messages over the summer about the status of her school reopening, Syedah recently learned that her school’s campus will remain closed for the fall semester. She plans to attend remote classes in a few weeks. And like many college students, she is grappling with staying motivated and missing out on the college experience.

first day of school after covid 19 essay

College has been a safe space where I’m the most “me.” I would wake up much happier. I had confidence in my routine, and I was surrounded by friends who made me feel excited to start the day. With online learning, I just carry on about my day with no specific emotion.

The hardest part about attending college remotely is maintaining a routine and motivation. For in-person classes, I would get dressed and have to physically be present which put a start to my day. Now, I sometimes turn on my computer as soon as I wake up and not give myself the mental space ahead of time to start my day. On the plus side, with online learning, there is a lot more flexibility in my schedule since I’m able to complete an assignment on my own timeframe. Most of my professors are honoring mental health, and are more understanding of external factors that impact the quality of education now that we're learning remotely.

Being part of the Enduring Ideas Fellowship has kept me busy working 20 hours a week. I’m also trying to get creative by learning how to cook and attempting new recipes. With my friends, we’ve all been checking-in and making sure we’re able to support one another through these mentally-draining times. Only two of my professors have reached out and asked how we’re doing, so there isn’t much support on that end.

While it can be mentally challenging and exhausting, I’m very fortunate to have access to technology and internet connection so I can complete my coursework. And I’m able to stay at home and quarantine if need be.

‘I'm Hoping That Jose Goes Back, Even Though I Know It's Scary’ Marisol Escobedo & Jose Manrrique, 4th grade, Kansas City, Missouri

Fourth-grade student Jose Manrrique is returning to school at Carver Dual Language in Kansas City, Missouri, in September—virtually, for now. Schools in the Kansas City Public School System will not reopen for in-person instruction until the community’s COVID-19 cases decrease for at least 14 days. While Jose eagerly awaits the day when he can return to the classroom and see his teachers and friends again, his mother, Marisol Escobedo, feels much more conflicted.

Marisol: They're going to be starting online school first, on September 8th. They will do that for a couple of months while the cases keep decreasing, then they will start putting some of the kids back in school. I'm hoping that Jose goes back, even though I know it's scary at the same time for him to go. I'm really worried that he will get sick. I don't want to go through that, it scares me. But I really would like Jose to be able to develop his learning so that he can learn what he's supposed to in school.

I don't really think that Jose learned much from online classes. Even though I know that the teachers do their best to teach them as much as they can, I don't think it's the same for the kids.

Especially the younger ages, I think that it's hard for them to be able to teach them everything on a computer—especially because you have multiple children at the same time in the class. For an older student, like my sister, I know that she did really good because she's older. She's 16 and she already knows what she's doing. But for Jose, it was hard.

I'm hoping that they will make the school safe for students, to try to keep them as healthy as they can. I don't know what that process will be, but I'm hoping that everything that they do, they will plan it well.

Jose: I want to go back in the school building. I'm hoping that I can still play with my friends and also be in the same class with my friends.

Adapting to a New Normal

‘i have to push myself to get things done’ haanya ijaz, 12th grade, dublin, ohio.

Haanya Ijaz is a rising senior at Hilliard Davidson, in Dublin, Ohio where she will be attending remote classes in the fall. She’s also taking classes at Ohio State University, which will be solely online. While she finds in-person classes more interesting and also values the face-to-face time with friends, she knows online learning is safer, and also allows her to independently create a schedule that works for her.

Online classes are definitely a lot more organized this fall than before.

I also think I've gained skills with handling procrastination and sticking to a schedule, so I should be more organized this fall. [The hardest part about online learning is] staying interested and motivated. Without sticking to a schedule, I easily fall into a cycle of procrastination and feeling down, so I have to push myself to get things done and stay on top of my responsibilities.

Most of my classes should be done before 4 p.m., leaving me room to work on college apps and extracurriculars in the afternoon along with homework.

I also think I'll have more time for my personal hobbies and interests which have always been something that give me a break outside of academics and keep my mental health in check. I read a lot! I also sketch landscapes, my friends, and characters from my favorite shows. Recently I've gotten back into skateboarding after a one-year-long hiatus, which has been great.

[I feel worried about] college applications and the situation with the state-administered SAT. It's still very gray. [I’m hopeful about my] self-growth and exploration with this extra time at home! I am also looking forward to the remote internship opportunities I will be participating in this fall.

I would obviously love it if COVID-19 did not exist, but within the current parameters of the situation I'm excited for the courses I am taking and the extracurriculars I am involved in. I also have a huge list of books I need to get through, so staying at home is going to be great for that!

‘I’m Feeling Hopeful About My Ability to Sit in on More Online Classes’ Annabel Morley, 12th Grade, Baltimore, Maryland

Annabel Morley is a rising senior at the Baltimore School of Arts. At least the beginning of Annabel’s final year of high school will be spent at home, where she will be learning remotely. Although Annabel worries about how engaging and supportive online learning will be this year, she’s found a silver lining: More time at home means that she has more time for her artistic pursuits which include writing for CHARM , an online literary magazine that amplifies voices of Baltimore youth and spending time with her family.

I’m not really sure yet what my school day will look like, but I know it will be entirely online. I definitely don’t think I would feel very safe going back to school in person unless CDC guidelines were followed really well. Both my parents are at risk and I wouldn’t want to put them, or my friends’ families, at risk.

The hardest part of attending school remotely is definitely not seeing any of my school friends in person and having some difficulty understanding the content. We have a lot less academic support. I’m most worried about understanding what's going on in my classes—especially in math. I hope that we can find a way for online schooling to be more engaging because it was very difficult to understand or stay focused on a class last spring.

Now that school is online, I definitely have more time to work on personal projects and interests. For example, I’ve started crocheting and oil painting, and have made a bunch of clothes. During quarantine, I've mainly been doing lots of crafts and baking, Facetiming, and having safe outdoor hangouts with my friends.

My mom and I are really close so it's been nice to be able to spend more time with her, and with all the Facetiming with my friends, I feel like I’ve been really loved and supported during this time. I’m feeling hopeful about my ability to sit in on more online classes and teach myself artistic and personal skills.

‘Honestly, I Would Prefer Learning in a Virtual Setting’ Amia Roach-Valandra, 12th Grade, Rosebud, South Dakota

Amia Roach-Valandra will begin her senior year of high school this fall on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She is also an Enduring Ideas fellow, a student-led leadership initiative to reimagine the future of education. Amia's school will be online during the first quarter, with plans to reevaluate whether to open for in-person classes. Like many students and families, Amia is feeling anxious not knowing what lies ahead.

In this new school year, we are faced with challenges that we never had to face before. My high school reached a decision to go online for the first quarter and have a revaluation in nine weeks. As a student I feel in the dark about the decision that is being made, and anxious about it. If the school isn’t prepared yet, how do they expect students to be prepared?

Not having a normal school setting may not allow me to be the best student I can be. I’ll have the safety of my health top of mind instead of learning the curriculum. Honestly, I would prefer learning in a virtual setting, and being able to learn from the comfort of my own home. I know I would be able to stay on top of assignments, although I know some students may not feel the same.

I am also a student-athlete, and I am worried about my school's plan regarding sports. It is definitely a piece of my life that I would want to go back to normal, yet I want to be considerate of my health as well as others. A lot of students depend on sports as a place to escape for a while, and others depend on sports scholarships for college. I am also thinking about those students and how much that will impact them this school year.

‘My Overall Mental and Physical Health Improved Significantly’ Tehle Ross, 10th Grade, Baltimore, Maryland

Tehle Ross is a rising sophomore attending Baltimore City College and a contributor for CHARM , a digital magazine featuring voices of Baltimore youth. She loves studying history and plans to study abroad this year in Italy, a country that has made a remarkable recovery through the pandemic. Her Italian school will be a hybrid of online and in-person at the beginning of the year and Tehle is optimistic about transitioning to all in-person classes.

Attending school remotely has several benefits and shortcomings alike. Each family's living and working situation is different; however, in my personal experience, I noticed that my overall mental and physical health improved significantly when doing school online. I was less stressed because I was able to space out my work as I desired, and I also was able to complete every assignment from the comfort of my own home. Attending school remotely stunted my academic progress, though, I believe, for I am a more focused student when instruction takes place in the classroom with my peers.

The hardest part of attending school remotely was the social isolation from my classmates and teachers. At school, you always feel like you have a community around you, and it is tough to not feel that same sense of community when learning online at home. Additionally, it takes an innate sense of motivation to get assignments done in a timely manner when you are doing work online.

Quarantine has been tough for us all, but I cope and stay busy by doing what makes me happy. I have developed a passion for baking, and I have also been an avid reader and writer. Having game nights with my family and watching movies together lifts my spirits.

My community has been supporting me during this time by checking up on me and staying in touch virtually. Supporting others during this time means prioritizing their safety.

Worries and Hopes About the Next Chapter

‘this pandemic is serious, but people have stopped taking it seriously’ shubhan bhat, 11th grade, baltimore, maryland.

Shubhan Bhat will also begin 11th grade this fall at The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. He enjoys poetry, writing for CHARM magazine, and studying American government. His school will hold online classes this fall and possibly offer a hybrid option later on. Shubhan prefers remote learning because it’s less stressful and safer for students. But being at home while trying to learn has also been very difficult for Shubhan and his family.

With remote learning, I gained more time to finish my work, had less stress, and more free time. What is lost is the social aspect of the classes, which is fine with me. I’m hopeful that online classes will be safer than an in-person school and there will be less work.

The hardest part about attending school remotely is being in the house when events happen. I was in my English class when the paramedics came to my house to try and revive my grandfather. I watched my grandfather die right in the middle of class. At that point, because my maternal grandfather also died a month ago, I lost all my motivation to be in class or do work. I left class, and haven’t come back since.

I’ve been getting support through classes and therapy. My family tries to work together on activities so I won’t be depressed during quarantine. My teachers also made my classes optional last spring so that decreased my stress. I don’t really have a lot of friends or go on social media as much as I used to. It used to entertain me, but it’s starting to get boring.

I wish schools in Texas and Florida wouldn't be in-person. I find that in-person classes during the pandemic aren't safe because students are going out in public and have a greater risk of spreading COVID. This pandemic is serious, but people have stopped taking it seriously. And now there is an increase in cases.

‘I Fear All of My College Plans Will Go Out the Window’ Me’Shiah Bell, 11th Grade, Baltimore Maryland

Me’Shiah Bell is a rising 11th grader at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, where students will continue to receive remote instruction this fall. While Me’Shiah believes that remote learning is the best and safest option for now, she worries about what remote learning will mean for her college plans—especially since she’s entering her junior year, a critical time for college admissions. In her free time, Me’Shiah also writes for CHARM online magazine.

I think remote learning is the best option, as it is the safest. However, I think there are quite a few downsides.

I miss the social interactions, but I realize that it’s unimportant in the long run. The main downside for me is the lack of clarity and communication between the students and teachers. For example, last spring I had a grading error that would have been fixed immediately if I was physically at school. However, since I wasn’t there, there was no sense of urgency, and my concern was disregarded by multiple adults. This caused the situation to be pushed over for much longer than it should’ve been.

Hopefully, this fall we’ll have a better system to avoid issues like this. I also hope classes will be scheduled like a typical school day, with multiple sessions in a row, and independent work to do between classes. Last spring, teachers could decide if and when classes sessions were held, and everything was very unorganized. Sometimes, the sessions would overlap with other responsibilities I had.

The hardest part of remote learning has been keeping myself motivated and holding myself accountable. I’m going into my junior year, which is probably the most important year for college admissions, and I don’t feel like I’m able to put my best foot forward. I’ve worked hard to get to the point I’m at now, and I fear that all of my college plans will go out of the window due to circumstances out of my control.

Overall, I’m worried about how prepared I am mentally to adjust to such a huge change, while still continuing to perform well academically. I’m hopeful that my school will be more prepared to accommodate all of our needs so that everyone can have the best possible experience.

‘I Think COVID Gave Me a New Story to Tell the Next Generation’ Rosalie Bobbett, 12th Grade, Brooklyn, New York

This August, Rosalie Bobbett will begin her senior year at Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy (BELA). The first three weeks of school will be held online, after which she will alternate one week of in-person classes and one week of remote learning. Rosalie lives with her parents, siblings, grandmother, and uncle so she’s been extra cautious about quarantining. Going back to in-person classes will be a big adjustment. But she’s ready.

My school is really on top of safety. They're going to make us wear masks. And we have to get a COVID test before we enter the school building. For in-person classes, we're going to stay in one room with 12 other people. The teachers have to rotate to us instead of us traveling in a big group.

I think with online learning, it gives me an opportunity to move at my own pace and take accountability for my learning. The disadvantages are the lack of talking to people and being in the classroom. I'm very fortunate to be in a school where I have a computer. I know how to work Zoom. I know how to work from Microsoft. Most of my peers don’t even have a computer. And so I'm wondering—how are those students navigating this world right now?

I feel like a lot of students are going to be left behind because of resources or their parents—there might be other children in the home and it's going to be difficult for them to take care of their siblings. The teachers and principals and people who are responsible for their education—I don't want them to lose sight of that child who is behind the screen.

I’m excited about school. It's my senior year. This is the last chapter before entering my adulthood. I think COVID gave me a new story to tell the next generation. It's going to be a lot of mixed emotions, but I know my teachers are going to make my senior year the best that they can.

How are new teachers coping with the new realities of returning to school? Find out what some incoming corps members told us about starting their teaching career in the midst of a pandemic.

More Community Voices

“ COVID-19: Community Voices ” offers a glimpse of life and learning during the coronavirus school closures, in the words of students and parents in the communities we serve.

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The pandemic has had devastating impacts on learning. What will it take to help students catch up?

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, megan kuhfeld , megan kuhfeld director of growth modeling and data analytics - nwea jim soland , jim soland assistant professor, school of education and human development - university of virginia, affiliated research fellow - nwea karyn lewis , and karyn lewis vice president of research and policy partnerships - nwea emily morton emily morton research scientist - nwea.

March 3, 2022

As we reach the two-year mark of the initial wave of pandemic-induced school shutdowns, academic normalcy remains out of reach for many students, educators, and parents. In addition to surging COVID-19 cases at the end of 2021, schools have faced severe staff shortages , high rates of absenteeism and quarantines , and rolling school closures . Furthermore, students and educators continue to struggle with mental health challenges , higher rates of violence and misbehavior , and concerns about lost instructional time .

As we outline in our new research study released in January, the cumulative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ academic achievement has been large. We tracked changes in math and reading test scores across the first two years of the pandemic using data from 5.4 million U.S. students in grades 3-8. We focused on test scores from immediately before the pandemic (fall 2019), following the initial onset (fall 2020), and more than one year into pandemic disruptions (fall 2021).

Average fall 2021 math test scores in grades 3-8 were 0.20-0.27 standard deviations (SDs) lower relative to same-grade peers in fall 2019, while reading test scores were 0.09-0.18 SDs lower. This is a sizable drop. For context, the math drops are significantly larger than estimated impacts from other large-scale school disruptions, such as after Hurricane Katrina—math scores dropped 0.17 SDs in one year for New Orleans evacuees .

Even more concerning, test-score gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by approximately 20% in math (corresponding to 0.20 SDs) and 15% in reading (0.13 SDs), primarily during the 2020-21 school year. Further, achievement tended to drop more between fall 2020 and 2021 than between fall 2019 and 2020 (both overall and differentially by school poverty), indicating that disruptions to learning have continued to negatively impact students well past the initial hits following the spring 2020 school closures.

These numbers are alarming and potentially demoralizing, especially given the heroic efforts of students to learn and educators to teach in incredibly trying times. From our perspective, these test-score drops in no way indicate that these students represent a “ lost generation ” or that we should give up hope. Most of us have never lived through a pandemic, and there is so much we don’t know about students’ capacity for resiliency in these circumstances and what a timeline for recovery will look like. Nor are we suggesting that teachers are somehow at fault given the achievement drops that occurred between 2020 and 2021; rather, educators had difficult jobs before the pandemic, and now are contending with huge new challenges, many outside their control.

Clearly, however, there’s work to do. School districts and states are currently making important decisions about which interventions and strategies to implement to mitigate the learning declines during the last two years. Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) investments from the American Rescue Plan provided nearly $200 billion to public schools to spend on COVID-19-related needs. Of that sum, $22 billion is dedicated specifically to addressing learning loss using “evidence-based interventions” focused on the “ disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underrepresented student subgroups. ” Reviews of district and state spending plans (see Future Ed , EduRecoveryHub , and RAND’s American School District Panel for more details) indicate that districts are spending their ESSER dollars designated for academic recovery on a wide variety of strategies, with summer learning, tutoring, after-school programs, and extended school-day and school-year initiatives rising to the top.

Comparing the negative impacts from learning disruptions to the positive impacts from interventions

To help contextualize the magnitude of the impacts of COVID-19, we situate test-score drops during the pandemic relative to the test-score gains associated with common interventions being employed by districts as part of pandemic recovery efforts. If we assume that such interventions will continue to be as successful in a COVID-19 school environment, can we expect that these strategies will be effective enough to help students catch up? To answer this question, we draw from recent reviews of research on high-dosage tutoring , summer learning programs , reductions in class size , and extending the school day (specifically for literacy instruction) . We report effect sizes for each intervention specific to a grade span and subject wherever possible (e.g., tutoring has been found to have larger effects in elementary math than in reading).

Figure 1 shows the standardized drops in math test scores between students testing in fall 2019 and fall 2021 (separately by elementary and middle school grades) relative to the average effect size of various educational interventions. The average effect size for math tutoring matches or exceeds the average COVID-19 score drop in math. Research on tutoring indicates that it often works best in younger grades, and when provided by a teacher rather than, say, a parent. Further, some of the tutoring programs that produce the biggest effects can be quite intensive (and likely expensive), including having full-time tutors supporting all students (not just those needing remediation) in one-on-one settings during the school day. Meanwhile, the average effect of reducing class size is negative but not significant, with high variability in the impact across different studies. Summer programs in math have been found to be effective (average effect size of .10 SDs), though these programs in isolation likely would not eliminate the COVID-19 test-score drops.

Figure 1: Math COVID-19 test-score drops compared to the effect sizes of various educational interventions

$Figure 1 – Math COVID-19 test-score drops compared to the effect sizes of various educational interventions$

Source: COVID-19 score drops are pulled from Kuhfeld et al. (2022) Table 5; reduction-in-class-size results are from pg. 10 of Figles et al. (2018) Table 2; summer program results are pulled from Lynch et al (2021) Table 2; and tutoring estimates are pulled from Nictow et al (2020) Table 3B. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals are shown with vertical lines on each bar.

Notes: Kuhfeld et al. and Nictow et al. reported effect sizes separately by grade span; Figles et al. and Lynch et al. report an overall effect size across elementary and middle grades. We were unable to find a rigorous study that reported effect sizes for extending the school day/year on math performance. Nictow et al. and Kraft & Falken (2021) also note large variations in tutoring effects depending on the type of tutor, with larger effects for teacher and paraprofessional tutoring programs than for nonprofessional and parent tutoring. Class-size reductions included in the Figles meta-analysis ranged from a minimum of one to minimum of eight students per class.

Figure 2 displays a similar comparison using effect sizes from reading interventions. The average effect of tutoring programs on reading achievement is larger than the effects found for the other interventions, though summer reading programs and class size reduction both produced average effect sizes in the ballpark of the COVID-19 reading score drops.

Figure 2: Reading COVID-19 test-score drops compared to the effect sizes of various educational interventions

Source: COVID-19 score drops are pulled from Kuhfeld et al. (2022) Table 5; extended-school-day results are from Figlio et al. (2018) Table 2; reduction-in-class-size results are from pg. 10 of Figles et al. (2018) ; summer program results are pulled from Kim & Quinn (2013) Table 3; and tutoring estimates are pulled from Nictow et al (2020) Table 3B. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals are shown with vertical lines on each bar.

Notes: While Kuhfeld et al. and Nictow et al. reported effect sizes separately by grade span, Figlio et al. and Kim & Quinn report an overall effect size across elementary and middle grades. Class-size reductions included in the Figles meta-analysis ranged from a minimum of one to minimum of eight students per class.

There are some limitations of drawing on research conducted prior to the pandemic to understand our ability to address the COVID-19 test-score drops. First, these studies were conducted under conditions that are very different from what schools currently face, and it is an open question whether the effectiveness of these interventions during the pandemic will be as consistent as they were before the pandemic. Second, we have little evidence and guidance about the efficacy of these interventions at the unprecedented scale that they are now being considered. For example, many school districts are expanding summer learning programs, but school districts have struggled to find staff interested in teaching summer school to meet the increased demand. Finally, given the widening test-score gaps between low- and high-poverty schools, it’s uncertain whether these interventions can actually combat the range of new challenges educators are facing in order to narrow these gaps. That is, students could catch up overall, yet the pandemic might still have lasting, negative effects on educational equality in this country.

Given that the current initiatives are unlikely to be implemented consistently across (and sometimes within) districts, timely feedback on the effects of initiatives and any needed adjustments will be crucial to districts’ success. The Road to COVID Recovery project and the National Student Support Accelerator are two such large-scale evaluation studies that aim to produce this type of evidence while providing resources for districts to track and evaluate their own programming. Additionally, a growing number of resources have been produced with recommendations on how to best implement recovery programs, including scaling up tutoring , summer learning programs , and expanded learning time .

Ultimately, there is much work to be done, and the challenges for students, educators, and parents are considerable. But this may be a moment when decades of educational reform, intervention, and research pay off. Relying on what we have learned could show the way forward.

What Life Was Like for Students in the Pandemic Year

In this video, Navajo student Miles Johnson shares how he experienced the stress and anxiety of schools shutting down last year. Miles’ teacher shared his experience and those of her other students in a recent piece for Education Week. In these short essays below, teacher Claire Marie Grogan’s 11th grade students at Oceanside High School on Long Island, N.Y., describe their pandemic experiences. Their writings have been slightly edited for clarity. Read Grogan’s essay .

“Hours Staring at Tiny Boxes on the Screen”

By Kimberly Polacco, 16

I stare at my blank computer screen, trying to find the motivation to turn it on, but my finger flinches every time it hovers near the button. I instead open my curtains. It is raining outside, but it does not matter, I will not be going out there for the rest of the day. The sound of pounding raindrops contributes to my headache enough to make me turn on my computer in hopes that it will give me something to drown out the noise. But as soon as I open it up, I feel the weight of the world crash upon my shoulders.

Each 42-minute period drags on by. I spend hours upon hours staring at tiny boxes on a screen, one of which my exhausted face occupies, and attempt to retain concepts that have been presented to me through this device. By the time I have the freedom of pressing the “leave” button on my last Google Meet of the day, my eyes are heavy and my legs feel like mush from having not left my bed since I woke up.

Tomorrow arrives, except this time here I am inside of a school building, interacting with my first period teacher face to face. We talk about our favorite movies and TV shows to stream as other kids pile into the classroom. With each passing period I accumulate more and more of these tiny meaningless conversations everywhere I go with both teachers and students. They may not seem like much, but to me they are everything because I know that the next time I am expected to report to school, I will be trapped in the bubble of my room counting down the hours until I can sit down in my freshly sanitized wooden desk again.

“My Only Parent Essentially on Her Death Bed”

By Nick Ingargiola, 16

My mom had COVID-19 for ten weeks. She got sick during the first month school buildings were shut. The difficulty of navigating an online classroom was already overwhelming, and when mixed with my only parent essentially on her death bed, it made it unbearable. Focusing on schoolwork was impossible, and watching my mother struggle to lift up her arm broke my heart.

My mom has been through her fair share of diseases from pancreatic cancer to seizures and even as far as a stroke that paralyzed her entire left side. It is safe to say she has been through a lot. The craziest part is you would never know it. She is the strongest and most positive person I’ve ever met. COVID hit her hard. Although I have watched her go through life and death multiple times, I have never seen her so physically and mentally drained.

I initially was overjoyed to complete my school year in the comfort of my own home, but once my mom got sick, I couldn’t handle it. No one knows what it’s like to pretend like everything is OK until they are forced to. I would wake up at 8 after staying up until 5 in the morning pondering the possibility of losing my mother. She was all I had. I was forced to turn my camera on and float in the fake reality of being fine although I wasn’t. The teachers tried to keep the class engaged by obligating the students to participate. This was dreadful. I didn’t want to talk. I had to hide the distress in my voice. If only the teachers understood what I was going through. I was hesitant because I didn’t want everyone to know that the virus that was infecting and killing millions was knocking on my front door.

After my online classes, I was required to finish an immense amount of homework while simultaneously hiding my sadness so that my mom wouldn’t worry about me. She was already going through a lot. There was no reason to add me to her list of worries. I wasn’t even able to give her a hug. All I could do was watch.

“The Way of Staying Sane”

By Lynda Feustel, 16

Entering year two of the pandemic is strange. It barely seems a day since last March, but it also seems like a lifetime. As an only child and introvert, shutting down my world was initially simple and relatively easy. My friends and I had been super busy with the school play, and while I was sad about it being canceled, I was struggling a lot during that show and desperately needed some time off.

As March turned to April, virtual school began, and being alone really set in. I missed my friends and us being together. The isolation felt real with just my parents and me, even as we spent time together. My friends and I began meeting on Facetime every night to watch TV and just be together in some way. We laughed at insane jokes we made and had homework and therapy sessions over Facetime and grew closer through digital and literal walls.

The summer passed with in-person events together, and the virus faded into the background for a little while. We went to the track and the beach and hung out in people’s backyards.

Then school came for us in a more nasty way than usual. In hybrid school we were separated. People had jobs, sports, activities, and quarantines. Teachers piled on work, and the virus grew more present again. The group text put out hundreds of messages a day while the Facetimes came to a grinding halt, and meeting in person as a group became more of a rarity. Being together on video and in person was the way of staying sane.

In a way I am in a similar place to last year, working and looking for some change as we enter the second year of this mess.

“In History Class, Reports of Heightening Cases”

By Vivian Rose, 16

I remember the moment my freshman year English teacher told me about the young writers’ conference at Bread Loaf during my sophomore year. At first, I didn’t want to apply, the deadline had passed, but for some strange reason, the directors of the program extended it another week. It felt like it was meant to be. It was in Vermont in the last week of May when the flowers have awakened and the sun is warm.

I submitted my work, and two weeks later I got an email of my acceptance. I screamed at the top of my lungs in the empty house; everyone was out, so I was left alone to celebrate my small victory. It was rare for them to admit sophomores. Usually they accept submissions only from juniors and seniors.

That was the first week of February 2020. All of a sudden, there was some talk about this strange virus coming from China. We thought nothing of it. Every night, I would fall asleep smiling, knowing that I would be able to go to the exact conference that Robert Frost attended for 42 years.

Then, as if overnight, it seemed the virus had swung its hand and had gripped parts of the country. Every newscast was about the disease. Every day in history, we would look at the reports of heightening cases and joke around that this could never become a threat as big as Dr. Fauci was proposing. Then, March 13th came around--it was the last day before the world seemed to shut down. Just like that, Bread Loaf would vanish from my grasp.

“One Day Every Day Won’t Be As Terrible”

By Nick Wollweber, 17

COVID created personal problems for everyone, some more serious than others, but everyone had a struggle.

As the COVID lock-down took hold, the main thing weighing on my mind was my oldest brother, Joe, who passed away in January 2019 unexpectedly in his sleep. Losing my brother was a complete gut punch and reality check for me at 14 and 15 years old. 2019 was a year of struggle, darkness, sadness, frustration. I didn’t want to learn after my brother had passed, but I had to in order to move forward and find my new normal.

Routine and always having things to do and places to go is what let me cope in the year after Joe died. Then COVID came and gave me the option to let up and let down my guard. I struggled with not wanting to take care of personal hygiene. That was the beginning of an underlying mental problem where I wouldn’t do things that were necessary for everyday life.

My “coping routine” that got me through every day and week the year before was gone. COVID wasn’t beneficial to me, but it did bring out the true nature of my mental struggles and put a name to it. Since COVID, I have been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. I began taking antidepressants and going to therapy a lot more.

COVID made me realize that I’m not happy with who I am and that I needed to change. I’m still not happy with who I am. I struggle every day, but I am working towards a goal that one day every day won’t be as terrible.

Coverage of social and emotional learning is supported in part by a grant from the NoVo Foundation, at www.novofoundation.org . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage. A version of this article appeared in the March 31, 2021 edition of Education Week as What Life Was Like for Students in the Pandemic Year

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Schools after COVID-19: From a teaching culture to a learning culture

Even before the pandemic, education was undergoing a transformation that will go on long after the virus threat subsides..

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The uniform is one size too big. The shoes need breaking in. The brand-new backpack hangs awkwardly off a pair of tiny shoulders. There’s a brave smile with a missing tooth or two, a final holding of hands, a hug, a kiss, a hesitant wave, and inevitable tears.

Before COVID-19 disrupted our lives and forced our kids to open their laptops and learn from home, the first day of school was a rite of passage — the start of a life-determining journey that has broadly followed the same shape and rhythm for generations.

From kindergarten to Year 12, classrooms are run by teachers who deliver lessons that start and end with a bell. They set tests, watch over examinations, and post grades that might delight, disappoint, or even surprise parents.

This one-size-fits-all approach to education has been in place for a couple of hundred years. Now, however, it is undergoing unprecedented change and not just because of COVID.

The response to the coronavirus has demonstrated how technology can help transform how we teach and learn. But the push for change started long before the pandemic struck, and it will go on long after the threat subsides. For years, policymakers have been exploring new transformative approaches to K-12 education that go far beyond just online lessons at home.

Rethinking learning

As lockdowns ease and schools start to reopen in some places across our region, it’s as good a time as any to take stock and look at the likely future of education.

Children who start school from now on will grow up to be workers and leaders in a digital-first world that will demand new skills and new ways of thinking.

To succeed in life and at work, they will need all the social, emotional, and academic support they can get via rich and flexible learning experiences that will differ vastly from the schooldays of their parents.

In short, education’s age-old three Rs – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic – are being joined by a fourth: Rethink.

New data-based technologies are opening up ways to transform practices, structures, and even cultures in schools.

We have solutions with the potential to transform the system … the question for us now is: How can we use technology to rethink education?

“Technology has changed many aspects of our society over many years, but school structures have largely stayed the same,” says Sean Tierney , Microsoft’s Director for Teaching and Learning Strategy, Asia.

“Now, we have solutions that have the potential to transform and improve the system so students can achieve more and develop valuable skills with better outcomes. The question for us now is: How can we use technology to rethink education?”

Tierney and others want a systemic shift in which education will move away from “a teaching culture to a learning culture.”

COVID-19: L earning goes on by going remote

Schools, colleges, and universities around the world were closed when COVID-19 struck. But lessons didn’t stop when innovative educators turned to remote learning technologies.

Through the crisis, millions of students across Asia and the Pacific have been learning and studying using new collaborative digital tools and resources on a massive scale. They have been physically apart, but virtually together.

In Taiwan, 2.5 million students and 200,000 teachers have kept up with their lessons via Microsoft Teams. In South Korea, Microsoft Azure helped authorities to expand the country’s remote learning capacity by 500 times within two weeks so that more than 3 million students could access its online resources.

Education ministries in Malaysia and the Philippines have also turned Teams to conduct training sessions, share information, and check in regularly with thousands of teachers who have made the rapid transition to remote lessons.

Hong Kong’s Christian and Missionary Alliance Sun Kei Primary School switched to remote learning within a matter of days after the territory’s students were ordered to stay home. Its teachers conducted lessons in empty classrooms via their laptops (pictured above) while students remained safe in lockdown, watching, listening, interacting, and learning on their devices.

“Modern learning cannot be confined to the classroom, and it is more important than ever to empower our teachers to continuously guide and nurture students during this difficult time,” says the school’s principal, Kenneth Cheng.

Larry Nelson , Regional General Manager for Education, Microsoft Asia, has lauded “school, university, and government leaders across the Asia Pacific who made the early call and reacted swiftly. Protecting our students, educators, family, and friends is the highest priority.”

Students can be empowered to learn for themselves in flexible, often collaborative ways, both inside and outside classrooms at their own pace.

Tierney also sees the physical formality of classroom culture melting away. “The classroom was important when you had to broadcast a certain message at a certain time to a certain group of kids. You had to have them in proximity. But this management and teaching model doesn’t have to dominate anymore,” he explains.

“In many ways, the classroom has become a physical barrier and just a way of holding onto the past. We are no longer bound by limitations that used to require us to have 30 kids in a classroom with one teacher.

Beyond classroom walls

“Now we can rethink that model. It can be multiple teachers with multiple kids. They can be places where kids can move around more flexibly. They don’t have to do the same thing at the same time in the same way. Schools have been exploring this for some time – technology changes the success rate.”

Nonetheless, Tierney believes bricks-and-mortar schools will play a valuable role in the future. For instance, a school is a safe place for children to learn social skills while their parents are at work.

“That won’t change. But with data-based technologies, educators will also be able to create flexible learning spaces and continuous on-learning environments, which will spread across the home, schools, and communities.”

People-driven learning

Perhaps technology’s most direct impact will be the emergence of “personalized learning” where each student enjoys focused individual attention from teachers who will access real-time data on their progress and problems.

Tierney regards this as a fundamental breakthrough for learning. “Knowing what is happening in the lives of each student might spell the difference between a toxic path and a prosperous path in the future. With data-rich models, we can help support kids holistically.”

He further explains: “If I am one teacher and I have 30 kids in my class, I will only have the chance to have a cursory look at every child. But if I had ten really experienced teachers in that classroom, they could watch three kids each closely and look for problems and opportunities for each.

ALSO READ: Teaming up to transform education in Asia

“We now have technology that can act as those ten extra teachers. It can give me the ability to observe all kinds of details and to understand at a much deeper level what the needs of those kids are. Not just in regard to content, but also pastoral care and life in general.

“Technology can recognize patterns and certain conditions that might need intervention. We can become much better at supporting them. Some educators describe this as data-driven learning. But that is a horrible term. It’s really people-driven learning.”

Social and emotional well-being

Personalized learning is a holistic approach that must do more than only focus on academic progress.

“It will also help teachers stay on top of, and adjust to, factors that affect social and emotional well-being. Teachers will be able to ensure students feel inspired, safe, valued, and able to learn in ways previously not possible.”

New learning tools will also be able to adjust to the needs of individual students – without instructions or intervention from their teachers.

“It would be like one of those virtual ten teachers turning up the brightness of a screen without bothering to tell the teacher. The smarter the technology gets, the more the teacher is supported and empowered.”

Personalized learning and real-time data could also see an end to the current cycle of lessons and tests.

“A test gives a teacher a snapshot in time about a whole bunch of kids. But once you have the results, it can be very difficult to adjust your teaching to address shortfalls because it is too late,” he says.

“Whereas if we are measuring all the time in real time, we know exactly where every child is because each will be on a continuum at any point in time. So they will still be graded, but based on real-time assessment that looks at a much deeper range of intelligences.”

To make all this work, the profession of teaching must transform, and that will be a challenge for some, Tierney admits.

Teachers learning alongside students

“There are teachers who teach in the traditional way. And there are great teachers who are also model learners. They learn with the kids. They don’t feel like they have to know everything, but they have to show what great learning looks like,” he says.

“Overall, it means inspiring students onto a path of lifelong self-learning. And that can include learning about new technology, which they can learn with the kids. If they can explore new ways of doing things, they can all grow together.”

Tierney says some teachers might struggle with this cultural shift. “When traditional teaching is your paradigm, you can get trapped inside a rigid mindset of feeling that you must know everything about the subjects you teach and that you can’t show weakness.”

Instead, teachers of the future “may need to spend less time designing the content component (of their subjects) and more time around the learning experience so that kids can find and create their own meaning around that content.

A teacher watches over a row of students using computers

Great teachers are also model learners … and that can include learning about new technology, which they can learn with the kids.

“A teacher should be an expert in learning and demonstrate the habits of mind that require great learning. They should be a model on these things for their students.”

The ability of teachers to keep adapting and innovating will be crucial, according to Salcito.

“What we want educators to do is not be bound by the structure of a 40-minute lecture, classroom dynamic, or assessment that’s connected to a curriculum, but recognize their goal and mission to expand upon every student’s potential.

“The best innovation that inspires most young people is the teacher.”

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Back to School and Back to Normal. Or at Least Close Enough.

As school began this year, we sent reporters to find out how much — or how little — has changed since the pandemic changed everything.

First graders at Vare-Washington Elementary School in Philadelphia. Credit... Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

Supported by

By The New York Times

Published Oct. 6, 2022 Updated Oct. 19, 2022

This article is part of our Learning special report about how the pandemic has continued to change how we approach education.

For the last few years, each “back to school” has been radically different.

September 2019 was the last return to school before Covid-19 arrived and sent students home, teachers scrambling and classes fully online. In September 2020, back to school meant logging into virtual class as the world awaited a return to normal. In September 2021, after months of political infighting, students nationwide returned to classrooms, many for the first time since March 2020.

And this fall? Students and teachers are again returning to campus, but this time in a new environment — in which Covid remains an ever-present threat, but no longer frames our everyday lives — as the country collectively adjusts to a new normal.

Last year, in the first days of school, we sent reporters across the country to see how students were feeling about returning. This year, as school began, we sent reporters into the field again, to see how much — or how little — has changed, and to answer a simple yet pivotal question: Where are we now? — Megan McCrea

Zak Jokela for The New York Times

In Billings, Mont., Friday night football games are again drawing excited crowds, and the spectators — and musical instruments — have shed their Covid masks.

In a Chicago elementary school, reminders about mask wearing are now woven into orientation.

And at a high school in suburban Missouri, officials are considering holding the first homecoming parade in 24 years.

In short, our reporters’ findings have been as varied as the schools themselves. Below are scenes from 13 schools, spanning pre-K to college, captured over two weeks in early September.

Liberty Bell Junior-Senior High School, Winthrop, Wash.

Billings West High School, Billings, Mont.
MCA Academy, Miami
Patrick Henry High School, Minneapolis
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Northwest High School, Cedar Hill, Mo.
Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Vare-Washington Elementary School, Philadelphia
Downey High School, Downey, Calif.
Southern Methodist University, Dallas
James Shields Elementary School, Chicago
Edgewood City Schools, Trenton, Ohio
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Los Angeles

Fifteen seniors saunter into Room 126, where hand-painted mountains on a wall evoke the North Cascades outside. The teens are dressed up (it’s picture day), and sipping iced drinks. The teacher, Elyse Darwood, chats with a student about ranching — she and her husband own 85 horses and mules here in the Methow (pronounced MET-how) Valley — then strolls to the light switches.

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The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.

Headed Back to School: A Look at the Ongoing Effects of COVID-19 on Children’s Health and Well-Being

Elizabeth Williams and Patrick Drake Published: Aug 05, 2022

Children are now preparing to head back to school for the third time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools are expected to return in-person this fall, with most experts now agreeing the benefits of in-person learning outweigh the risks of contracting COVID-19 for children. Though children are less likely than adults to develop severe illness, the risk of contracting COVID-19 remains, with some children developing symptoms of long COVID following diagnosis. COVID-19 vaccines provide protection, and all children older than 6 months are now eligible to be vaccinated. However, vaccination rates have stalled and remain low for younger children. At this time, only a few states have vaccine mandates for school staff or students, and no states have school mask mandates, though practices can vary by school district. Emerging COVID-19 variants, like the Omicron subvariant BA.5 that has recently caused a surge in cases, may pose new risks to children and create challenges for the back-to-school season.

Children may also continue to face challenges due to the ongoing health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic. Children have been uniquely impacted by the pandemic, having experienced this crisis during important periods of physical, social, and emotional development, with some experiencing the loss of loved ones. While many children have gained health coverage due to federal policies passed during the pandemic, public health measures to reduce the spread of the disease also led to disruptions or changes in service utilization and increased mental health challenges for children.

This brief examines how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect children’s physical and mental health, considers what the findings mean for the upcoming back-to-school season, and explores recent policy responses. A companion KFF brief explores economic effects of the pandemic and recent rising costs on households with children. We find households with children have been particularly hard hit by loss of income and food and housing insecurity, which all affect children’s health and well-being.

Children’s Health Care Coverage and Utilization

Despite job losses that threatened employer-sponsored insurance coverage early in the pandemic, uninsured rates have declined likely due to federal policies passed during in the pandemic and the safety net Medicaid and CHIP provided. Following growth in the children’s uninsured rate from 2017 to 2019, data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) show that the children’s uninsured rate held steady from 2019 to 2020 and then fell from 5.1% in 2020 to 4.1% in 2021. Just released quarterly NHIS data show the children’s uninsured rate was 3.7% in the first quarter of 2022, which was below the rate in the first quarter of 2021 (4.6%) but a slight uptick from the fourth quarter of 2021 (3.5%), though none of these differences are statistically significant. Administrative data show that children’s enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP increased by 5.2 million enrollees, or 14.7%, between February 2020 and April 2022 (Figure 1). Provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) require states to provide continuous coverage for Medicaid enrollees until the end of the month in which the public health emergency (PHE) ends in order to receive enhanced federal funding.

Children have missed or delayed preventive care during the pandemic, with a third of adults still reporting one or more children missed or delayed a preventative check-up in the past 12 months (Figure 2). However, the share missing or delaying care is slowly declining, with the share from April 27 – May 9, 2022 (33%) down 3% from almost a year earlier (July 21 – August 2, 2021) according to KFF analysis of the Household Pulse Survey . Adults in households with income less than $25,000 were significantly more likely to have a child that missed, delayed, or skipped a preventive appointment in the past 12 months compared to households with income over $50,000. These data are in line with findings from another study that found households reporting financial hardship were significantly more likely to report missing or delaying children’s preventive visits compared to those not reporting hardships. Hispanic households and households of other racial/ethnic groups were also significantly more likely to have a child that missed, delayed, or skipped a preventive appointment in the past 12 months compared to White households (based on race of the adult respondent).

Telehealth helped to provide access to care, but children with special health care needs and those in rural areas continued to face barriers. Overall, telehealth utilization soared early in the pandemic, but has since declined and has not offset the decreases in service utilization overall. While preventative care rates have increased since early in the pandemic, many children likely still need to catch up on missed routine medical care. One study found almost a quarter of parents reported not catching-up after missing a routine medical visit during the first year of the pandemic. The pandemic may have also exacerbated existing challenges accessing needed care and services for children with special health care needs , and low-income patients or patients in rural areas may have experienced barriers to accessing health care via telehealth .

The pandemic has also led to declines in children’s routine vaccinations, blood lead screenings, and vision screenings. The CDC reported vaccination coverage of all state-required vaccines declined by 1% in the 2020-2021 school year compared to the previous year, and some public health leaders note COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy may be spilling over to routine child immunizations. The CDC also report ed 34% fewer U.S. children had blood lead level testing from January-May 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Further, data suggest declines in lead screenings during the pandemic may have exacerbated underlying gaps and disparities in early identification and intervention for lower-income households and children of color. Additionally, many children rely on in-school vision screenings to identity vision impairments, and some children went without vision checks while schools managed COVID-19 and turned to remote learning. These screenings are important for children in order to identify problems early; without treatment some conditions can worsen or lead to more serious health complications.

The pandemic has also led to difficulty accessing and disruptions in dental care. Data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) show the share of children reporting seeing a dentist or other oral health provider or having a preventive dental visit in the past 12 months declined from 2019 to 2020, the first year of the pandemic (Figure 3). The share of children reporting their teeth are in excellent or very good conditions also declined from 2019 (80%) to 2020 (77%); the share of children reporting no oral health problems also declined but the change was not statistically significant.

Recently released preliminary data for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries under age 19 shows steep declines in service utilization early in the pandemic, with utilization then rebounding to a varying degree depending on the service type . Child screening services have rebounded to pre-PHE levels while blood lead screenings and dental services rates remain below per-PHE levels. Telehealth utilization mirrors national trends, increasing rapidly in April 2020 and then beginning to decline in 2021. When comparing the PHE period (March 2020 – January 2022) to the pre-PHE period (January 2018 – February 2020) overall, the data show child screening services and vaccination rates declined by 5% (Figure 4). Blood lead screening services and dental services saw larger declines when comparing the PHE period to before the PHE, declining by 12% and 18% respectively among Medicaid/CHIP children.

Children’s Mental Health Challenges

Children’s mental health challenges were on the rise even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent KFF analysis found the share of adolescents experiencing anxiety and/or depression has increased by one-third from 2016 (12%) to 2020 (16%), although rates in 2020 were similar to 2019. Rates of anxiety and/or depression were more pronounced among adolescent females and White and Hispanic adolescents. A separate survey of high school students in 2021 found that lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) students were more likely to report persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness than their heterosexual peers. In the past few years, adolescents have experienced worsened emotional health, increased stress, and a lack of peer connection along with increasing rates of drug overdose deaths, self-harm, and eating disorders. Prior to the pandemic, there was also an increase in suicidal thoughts from 14% in 2009 to 19% in 2019.

The pandemic may have worsened children’s mental health or exacerbated existing mental health issues among children . The pandemic caused disruptions in routines and social isolation for children, which can be associated with anxiety and depression and can have implications for mental health later in life. A number of studies show an increase in children’s mental health needs following social isolation due to the pandemic, especially among children who experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). KFF analysis found the share of parents responding that adolescents were experiencing anxiety and/or depression held relatively steady from 2019 (15%) to 2020 (16%), the first year of the pandemic. However, the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor on perspectives of the pandemic at two years found six in ten parents say the pandemic has negatively affected their children’s schooling and over half saying the same about their children’s mental health. Researchers also note it is still too early to fully understand the impact of the pandemic on children’s mental health. The past two years have also seen much economic turmoil, and research has shown that as economic conditions worsen, children’s mental health is negatively impacted. Further, gun violence continues to rise and may lead to negative mental health impacts among children and adolescents. Research suggests that children and adolescents may experience negative mental health impacts, including symptoms of anxiety, in response to school shootings and gun-related deaths in their communities .

Access and utilization of mental health care may have also worsened during the pandemic. Preliminary data for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries under age 19 finds utilization of mental health services during the PHE declined by 23% when compared to prior to the pandemic (Figure 4); utilization of substance use disorder services declined by 24% for beneficiaries ages 15-18 for the same time period. The data show utilization of mental health services remains below pre-PHE levels and has seen the smallest improvement compared to other services utilized by Medicaid/CHIP children. Telehealth has played a significant role in providing mental health and substance use services to children early in the pandemic, but has started to decline . The pandemic may have widened existing disparities in access to mental health care for children of color and children in low-income households. NSCH data show 20% of children with mental health needs were not receiving needed care in 2020, with the lowest income children less likely to receive needed mental health services when compared to higher income groups (Figure 5).

Children’s Health and COVID-19

While less likely than adults to develop severe illness, children can contract and spread COVID-19 and children with underlying health conditions are at an increased risk of developing severe illness . Data through July 28, 2022 show there have been over 14 million child COVID-19 cases, accounting for 19% of all cases. Among Medicaid/CHIP enrollees under age 19, 6.4% have received a COVID-19 diagnosis through January 2022. Pediatric hospitalizations peaked during the Omicron surge in January 2022, and children under age 5, who were not yet eligible for vaccination, were hospitalized for COVID-19 at five times the rate during the Delta surge.

Some children who tested positive for the virus are now facing long COVID . A recent meta-analysis found 25% of children and adolescents had ongoing symptoms following COVID-19 infection, and finds the most common symptoms for children were fatigue, shortness of breath, and headaches, with other long COVID symptoms including cognitive difficulties, loss of smell, sore throat, and sore eyes. Another report found a larger share of children with a confirmed COVID-19 case experienced a new or recurring mental health diagnosis compared to children who did not have a confirmed COVID-19 case. However, researchers have noted it can be difficult to distinguish long COVID symptoms to general pandemic-associated symptoms. In addition, a small share of children are experiencing multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a serious condition associated with COVID-19 that has impacted almost 9,000 children . A lot of unknowns still surround long COVID in children; it is unclear how long symptoms will last and what impact they will have on children’s long-term health.

COVID-19 vaccines were recently authorized for children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years, making all children 6 months and older eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccination has already peaked for children under the age of 5, and is far below where 5-11 year-olds were at the same point in their eligibility. As of July 20, approximately 544,000 children under the age of 5 (or approximately 2.8%) had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Vaccinations for children ages 5-11 have stalled, with just 30.3% have been fully vaccinated as of July 27 compared to 60.2% of those ages 12-17. Schools have been important sites for providing access as well as information to help expand vaccination take-up among children, though children under 5 are not yet enrolled in school, limiting this option for younger kids. A recent KFF survey finds most parents of young children newly eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine are reluctant to get them vaccinated, including 43% who say they will “definitely not” do so.

Some children have experienced COVID-19 through the loss of one or more family members due to the virus. A study estimates that, as of June 2022, over 200,000 children in the US have lost one or both parents to COVID-19. Another study found children of color were more likely to experience the loss of a parent or grandparent caregiver when compared to non-Hispanic White children. Losing a parent can have long term impacts on a child’s health, increasing their risk of substance abuse, mental health challenges, poor educational outcomes , and early death . There have been over 1 million COVID-19 deaths in the US, and estimates indicate a 17.5% to 20% increase in bereaved children due to COVID-19, indicating an increased number of grieving children who may need additional supports as they head back to school.

Looking Ahead

Children will be back in the classroom this fall but may continue to face health risks due to their or their teacher’s vaccination status and increasing transmission due to COVID-19 variants. New, more transmissible COVID-19 variants continue to emerge, with the most recent Omicron subvariant BA.5 driving a new wave of infections and reinfections among those who have already had COVID-19. This could lead to challenges for the back-to-school season, especially among young children whose vaccination rates have stalled.

Schools, parents, and children will likely continue to catch up on missed services and loss of instructional time in the upcoming school year. Schools are likely still working to address the loss of instructional time and drops in student achievement due to pandemic-related school disruptions. Further, many children with special education plans experienced missed or delayed services and loss of instructional time during the pandemic. Students with special education plans may be entitled to compensatory services to make up for lost skills due to pandemic related service disruptions, and some children, such as those with disabilities related to long COVID, may be newly eligible for special education services.

To address worsening mental health and barriers to care for children, several measures have been taken or proposed at the state and federal level. Many states have recently enacted legislation to strengthen school based mental health systems, including initiatives such as from hiring more school-based providers to allowing students excused absences for mental health reasons. In July 2022, 988 – a federally mandated crisis number – launched, providing a single three-digit number for individuals in need to access local and state funded crisis centers, and the Biden Administration released a strategy to address the national mental health crisis in May 2022, building on prior actions. Most recently, in response to gun violence, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was signed into law and allocates funds towards mental health, including trauma care for school children.

The unwinding of the PHE and expiring federal relief may have implications for children’s health coverage and access to care. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) extended eligibility to ACA health insurance subsides for people with incomes over 400% of poverty and increased the amount of assistance for people with lower incomes. However, these subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year without further action from Congress, which would increase premium payments for 13 million Marketplace enrollees. In addition, provisions in the FFCRA providing continuous coverage for Medicaid enrollees will expire with the end of the PHE. Millions of people, including children, could lose coverage when the continuous enrollment requirement ends if they are no longer eligible or face administrative barriers during the process despite remaining eligible. There will likely be variation across states in how many people are able to maintain Medicaid coverage, transition to other coverage, or become uninsured. Lastly, there have also been several policies passed throughout the pandemic to provide financial relief for families with children, but some benefits, like the expanded Child Tax Credit, have expired and the cost of household items is rising, increasing food insecurity and reducing the utility of benefits like SNAP.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Coronavirus

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