Corona pandemic in the United States shapes new normal for young children and their families

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic tremendously disrupted ECE in the U.S., closing many private programs and nearly all public preschool and primary classrooms. To understand this impact, we used multiple strategies, including a nationwide survey of parents; a review of state policies, guidance and resource documents; and scans of media coverage to obtain information on how the pandemic has shaped policy and the ECE experiences of young children and their families across the U.S. beginning in the spring and continuing through the fall of 2020. Our findings suggest that the pandemic has highlighted already existing problems in the fragmented ECE system. Pandemic-related problems may give rise to greater support for better integrated systems and consolidation in the public sector but might also lead to support for an expanded private sector role.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• United States
• preschool
• remote learning
• early learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Burbio, a data service that aggregates more than 80,000 K-12 school calendars across all 50 states found that in September 2020, 69% of schools planned to open remotely, up from 52% in August, see: https://info.burbio.com/press/.

2 On August 31, 2020, Governor Beshear issued a new executive order increasing class sized from 10 to 15 children.

3 CCSSO; AASA, The Superintendents Association; the National Association for the Education of Young Children and others have created webinars for a community of practitioners which serve as online forums of early educators to engage in professional discourse. CCSSO selected a preschool teacher from Kansas as the 2020 National Teacher of the Year, thereby elevating teacher voice in early education.