The latest signs of the end of the pandemic are upon us. The Biden administration plans to let coronavirus public health emergency provisions expire in May, and individual states are ending various COVID mandates as well. New York is dropping hospital mask mandates and vaccine mandates for city workers, while California has decided against enacting vaccine mandates for schoolchildren and is ending its own state of emergency on February 28. For most Americans, COVID is no longer a top concern. According to the Pew Research Center, there has been a sharp decline in the number of Americans who view the pandemic as a political priority.
In the pandemic’s wake, our attention must now be focused on other areas. In particular, the U.S. must find ways to deal with the effects of the pandemic and lockdowns on children. Analysis from the Associated Press shows massive learning setbacks: the average student “lost more than half a school year of learning in math and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading.” Online classes could not provide the same benefits as in-person classes, but students are struggling even as they return to classrooms.
Fights, aggressive behavior, and shootings and other violence have marred the reopening of schools across the country. The Associated Press reports that “the pandemic contributed to the volatility in schools by causing a surge in student mental health problems, trauma at home, a lack of socializing opportunities, and a shortage of teachers and counselors that reduced adult supervision and guidance…the prolonged isolation and immersion in screens and social media had lasting effects.” These effects play out in the classroom for the students who have returned to in-person learning, but a large and worrying number of children haven’t returned to school at all.
Analysis from researchers at Stanford University found “an estimated 230,000 students in 21 states whose absences could not be accounted for.” It’s not just that these students dropped out of public schools to join private schools or be homeschooled. Researchers would have been able to see this from the data. Instead their status is simply a mystery. Whether these students dropped out or were taken out of school by their parents and never enrolled in other educational institutions is unknown, though the Associated Press speculates that among older children, “some are still afraid of COVID-19, are homeless, or have left the country.” The real tally of young people not receiving an education is likely far greater than 230,000 given the limitations of the report.
In Massachusetts, the number of unexplained absences is over 1,000. Our state has faced severe learning loss among enrolled students as well. Another Stanford University report found that “on average during the coronavirus pandemic, Massachusetts students lost 75% of a school year’s worth of math learning and 41% of a year of reading, with Boston Public Schools students losing 85% of a year of math.” These numbers represent not just a problem for the short term. Such a learning loss will have devastating effects on students’ higher educational opportunities and lifetime earnings if they are not rectified.
Will the situation for children improve as COVID becomes less and less of a factor in daily life? For this to happen, more research and intervention must take place. Children’s hospitals throughout the United States are finding new ways to partner with schools to address physical and mental health, a step in the right direction. In California, the Children’s Health of Orange County healthcare network has “partnered with Orange County middle schools and high schools to create WellSpaces, places where kids can drop in and see a counselor during school hours.” In our own community, Boston Children’s Hospital is developing new models as part of its Neighborhood Partnerships program, which helps to increase access to mental and physical healthcare in Boston public schools.
Nonetheless, evidence from the Calder Center, which focuses on longitudinal education research, shows that most school districts have struggled to implement learning recovery efforts. As one pandemic fades, another – a crisis in children’s health and learning – is on the horizon. Aggressive action will be needed in the next several years, and schools must continue to work with different organizations, including hospitals and education researchers, to address the multiple facets of the problem.
