Our youngest learners still struggle, years after COVID-19 closed schools

More time at home

Many young children sheltered at home with their families during the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The vast majority of them did not suffer the physical symptoms of the virus itself. Not yet in kindergarten, they also weren’t experiencing interrupted schooling, like their older siblings.

Some had parents who were putting themselves at risk daily, at work, or caring for sick family members. Some had limited access to food or medical care. There were also children whose day-to-day felt relatively ordinary. Many children, too young to know much about the larger context, were simply experiencing life at home with their families. Some may have even benefitted from having extra family members around to play with and care for them. 

Less time at school

Yet, even for those who seemed to be faring well, something would impact pre-school-aged children significantly and for years to come: these children wouldn’t be going to preschool. At least, a lot of them wouldn’t. Children across the country, with differing income levels, resources, and family structures, were staying home.

By the start of the school year in 2021, most K-12 students were back to school in some way, whether in-person, remotely, or participating in a hybrid learning model. Yet, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), only 40% of children ages 3-4 were enrolled in preschool in 2021, 20% fewer than were enrolled before the pandemic in 2019. 

Whether changing enrollment reflected changes in family resources, household responsibilities, childcare availability, health concerns, or other changing priorities, many children sat that year out. In general, parents and educators, rightly worried about their older children, who were missing out on some or all of their kindergarten, first grade, or ever-important high school years, were less concerned about these younger siblings. After all, the little ones weren’t missing out on milestone opportunities like learning to read, taking final exams, or building resumes for college. They were simply at home. Often, with their families. They were going to be fine. 

But are they?

How limited exposure to preschool is playing out

Over the past several years, children in this age group, who may not have gone to preschool as three and four-year-olds during (and after) the pandemic closures, have gone on to complete kindergarten and even the first few years of elementary school. Preschool enrollment rates have bounced back in the years since the 2021 dip, but what happened to those children who missed out? 

• As described in a recent K-12 Dive article, teachers and principals have serious concerns about these children’s academic, socioemotional, and behavioral development, noting that they are demonstrating more developmental challenges. 

• A superintendent in Texas noticed that this group of children “have a harder time saying goodbye to their parents when they drop them off” than children of the same age did before the pandemic. 

• A Curriculum Associates Research study points to “disruptions in their early childhood experiences [and] difficulties building up foundational skills like phonics or number recognition” as possible reasons why these children may be struggling academically. 

One thing teachers can agree on: whether the concerns are social, emotional, or academic, waiting to create interventions until standardized test data is available, usually not until children are in 3rd grade, is too little too late for students who are at risk of falling farther and farther behind. To prevent gaps from snowballing, children are best served by recognizing and remedying those gaps early. 

Tools takeaways

• Tools teachers, like other preschool and kindergarten teachers across the country, are still seeing some of these same developmental challenges in the new group of children entering their classrooms now—children who were just babies and young toddlers during the pandemic. 
• Because of Tools focus on developing self-regulation, we have opportunities to strategically support children who are struggling early on, scaffolding their self-regulation development to meet the challenges ahead. 
• At Tools, we are working to refine our tools to better capture data on each child’s development and provide teachers and families with tips and guidance to support children where they are today and better prepare them for tomorrow. 
• Together, we can ensure that our youngest children are ready to take on a lifetime of successful and joyful learning experiences. 

To read more about Tools innovative new self-regulation assessment, click here.