By Yasmina Vinci and David Medina
It’s a crisis within a crisis: The pandemic has badly frayed America’s patchwork system of early education and child development. In Virginia, pre-kindergarten enrollment declined nearly 20 percent between the 2019 and 2020 school years most dramatically among children in low-income families. San Antonio, Texas, saw the number of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-K programs drop 30 percent. Many other cities and states have seen similarly alarming enrollment declines.
From a childhood development and equity perspective, the drops in enrollment are a national tragedy. During the pandemic, children are also losing learning opportunities, experiencing more trauma and facing additional health risks; children from lower-income communities are most at-risk for these negative effects. Quality early education is a powerful means of closing achievement gaps and is tied to positive outcomes like high school graduation and higher adult wages realize
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Students play with toys at a Head Start classroom in Idaho. Drawing from its over 50-year history, Head Start can provide important lessons about what works for young children. Credit: Lillian Mongeau/The Hechinger Report
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It’s a crisis within a crisis: The pandemic has badly frayed America’s patchwork system of early education and child development. In Virginia, pre-kindergarten enrollment declined nearly 20 percent between the 2019 and 2020 school years most dramatically among children in low-income families. San Antonio, Texas, saw the number of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-K programs drop 30 percent. Many other cities and states have seen similarly alarming enrollment declines.
Courtesy Heidi Metcalf Lewis
(NEW YORK) An image of a Maryland woman working from her bathtub has led to a reflection on the child care crisis caregivers have faced since the onset of COVID-19, and what leaders are doing to change it.
At the height of the pandemic, Heidi Metcalf Lewis, a mother of two from Silver Spring, was photographed by her husband after she had set up a work space in her bathroom. Seen nearby was her 1-year-old daughter playing with a water table toy.
Lewis attempt to occupy her toddler while tackling workday tasks was dubbed a familiar scene for the millions of parents who were left without options when a majority of day care centers closed and schools turned to remote learning.