Highlander
Negative Remote – Courtesy of Pexels
A team of researchers at UCR have been awarded a grant by the National Institutes of Health and UCR’s Center for Health Disparities Research for their study, titled Parent Experiences of Remote Learning. This study is centered around the experiences of families with parents and school-aged children within the Inland Empire.
Jan Blacher, distinguished research professor in UCR’s Graduate School of Education, director of the SEARCH Family Autism Resource Center and one of the project leaders, spoke to The Highlander about the importance of this particular research endeavor.
She explained that though the negative impacts of school closures have likely been felt by all families, the effects may be much more far reaching among vulnerable populations, especially among young children who are dependent upon their caregivers, children with special education needs who have had their support services reduced and racial minority children. “For the richly diverse communities of the Inland Empire, pre-existing socioeconomic and health disparities likely exacerbated the consequences of school closures,” Blacher explained.