The COVID Parent Gap

When COVID struck, schools were forced to close their physical doors, go online, and attempt to support both the academic and emotional development of children in their care. They were immediately on the back foot, having to adapt quickly to ever-changing situations and develop new systems to both gather data and provide the services and quality expected of the institution. Understandably, these priorities resulted in less emphasis on ensuring that parents were active and visible members of the school community.

Since the pandemic, schools have returned to ‘normal’ and there has been much discussion and research into the impact on academic and social-emotional development created through an absence from in-person schooling of at least 6 months to over 2 years. It has been accepted that students have both learning gaps and differences in social-emotional maturity and skills compared to those prior to COVID. In most cases, 4 years on from the pandemic these concerns are decreasing. Counselors and teachers have worked hard to accelerate learning and provide more targeted interventions to ensure students are given tools to navigate social situations. More focus on discussions related to online safety has also increased and schools are proactively reducing screen time where possible. However, there has been less research on the effect that COVID has had on parental involvement and how this impacts schools and learners. 

The benefits of having a strong engaged parental community can not be underestimated in the area of child safety. Providing parents with the information they need to identify, support, and inform schools of concerns is essential. However, since the pandemic, we have again been on the back foot. Many schools have not shared data with their community that clearly identifies the social and emotional impact of COVID on students at different developmental stages. Where problems occur schools are often reacting to individual situations and therefore parents may have a misconception that only their child is having issues, rather than being a global phenomenon.

Parents have been less present in schools since the pandemic. More students are dropped off in the car park, as this was the expectation when schools in Kenya were not allowed to have parents on campus for so long. In addition, more students are coming to school on the bus. Possibly because many parents are continuing to work from home. The everyday connection of the early morning drop-off for early years children, where the greatest impact on parent collaboration and induction begins, has been stilted in many schools. This hampers teachers’ ability to interact and learn about their students’ relationships with their parents or build partnerships with parents face-to-face. The same can be said for older students whose parents often opt for online meetings rather than coming to school. Although practitioners and parents alike welcome the use of technology learned in the pandemic to enhance learning and streamline events, I wonder if this too is reducing our ability to build a community that supports child safety endeavors.

Although we are all aware that relationships and community presence within our schools is less than it was before, schools from my experience are not standing back and looking at how parental relationships have been changed due to COVID, the impact this has in the area of child safety or deciding how they can address this balance.

I wonder if other schools have assessed the impact the pandemic has had on their engagement with parents and what they are doing to address the issue. I am also curious to know what other schools are doing to re-engage their parents, build relationships with them, and share information that would help to reduce the social and emotional skills in our students.