As we continue to struggle through these uncertain times almost a year since the pandemic caused schools to go virtual, the Youth Advocacy Foundation (YAF) and our primary initiative, the EdLaw Project (EdLaw) continue to focus on our state’s most vulnerable children. Our EdLaw attorneys are still working remotely and responding in real time to provide up to date advice and support for our clients and the statewide juvenile bar. 

Our clients are hit especially hard by effects of the virus and resultant school closures. This situation has the potential to push many more young people off track and into the school-to-prison pipeline. Here are many examples of the ways that the kids we serve are being affected:

• A fifth grader with a learning disability whose family lacks the technology is unable to participate in needed reading instruction;
• A high school junior has to help his younger siblings with their on-line schooling, because his mom is an essential employee;
• An 8-year-old has lost the school breakfast and lunch she depended on for vital nutrition;
• A 13-year-old who suffers from anxiety and depression is further traumatized by worry for his primary caretaker – his elderly grandmother;
• A 15-year-old in the custody of the Department of Children & Families can’t access his school’s remote learning, because the Group Home he’s been placed at lacks Wi-Fi and computers;
• A severely autistic 6-year-old who requires in-person one-on-one services is now losing important communication and daily living skills he had worked months to gain;
• An eleventh grader who is still reading at a third-grade level is no longer receiving any reading services;

The press has reportedly widely on the particular toll school closures are having on low-income kids who receive special education.  It is expected that the current situation is likely to further deepen the typical academic achievement gaps between poor, middle-class and wealthy students. The reality is that the “unfinished learning” from this time is likely to have negative implications for years to come. 

It is clear that we will be working harder than ever this year to help our clients begin to close the large academic gap caused by the reliance on remote learning required by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The quality of remote education and the availability of in-person instruction is disparately different across race and economic status with the reliance on often less-than-ideal remote learning options. The impact of that disadvantage will exacerbate existing achievement gaps by 15 to 20% and will have long-term effects on these children’s long-term economic well-being and the US economy as a whole[1].

[1] See https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime