Five years after COVID closed schools, Mass. parents still worry about pandemic effects on kids
Closing the digital divide
About 68 percent of low-income parents report not
having enough devices at home to support work and their children's education, a greater disparity than in 2020, when it was 80 percent. Among Latino families, the figure was 74 percent this year.
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Jennie Williamson, state director for Ed Trust in Massachusetts, said this divide directly undermines student success and broader educational experiences, especially when it comes to students with disabilities or
'Access to devices and technology is not a luxury. It's a necessity,' Williamson said.
Leonel Lainez, 55, from Brockton, has two children in college and a son in the eighth grade. Lainez, who works in construction, said his three children share one device and access poor internet service.
Lainez said his son uses a device at school but is unable to bring it home, and the family can't stretch their budget to buy another one.
'He isn't up to speed with his peers, he needs a device,' Lainez said in Spanish.
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Academic losses
While the majority of parents agree educators are doing their best, more than 40 percent of parents expressed concern over their children's academic progress, up from 36 percent in 2022.
Daniel Sosa, 33, from Revere, said his
fourth
grade son is falling behind in reading and math.
'I just feel like the classes are too full, so there's not enough attention to each student or the way the teacher teaches,' Sosa said.
Sosa, who owns his own men's clothing business in downtown Boston, said when he briefly entered his son into an afterschool math program
before school let out for the summer, his performance improved substantially, echoing a need for specialized instruction.
Post-secondary expectations
A majority of Black, Latino, and low-income parents have little expectation their children will earn a college degree, while their more affluent and white peers do.
About 39 percent of Black parents and 31 percent of Latino parents expect their child to get a degree. Of families surveyed who earn less than $50,000, only 17 percent said they expect to complete college.
By contrast, 62 percent of parents who earn over $100,000 said they expect their children to earn degrees.
Williamson,
the Ed Trust state director, said parents are reevaluating the cost-benefit of college, especially considering ballooning student debt and
'We find this gap to be really alarming, especially in a state like Massachusetts that has invested so heavily in making higher education more accessible and affordable,' Williamson said.
John King, 33, from Boston, has a child entering the third grade at Saint Theresa of Avila School. He said he opted for his child to go to private Catholic school instead of Boston Public Schools to better prepare him for higher education, due to his own high school experience, where he felt he lacked college readiness and financial literacy education.
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'College might be a real optional thing for people. I start seeing a lot of people with degrees that don't have jobs. That's a lot of debt,' King said.
Sosa said sending his kid to college is the family's priority.
'My parents, they didn't even finish school coming from a third world country, so now going forward, we have to do better than our parents,' Sosa said.
Safety, fairness, and discrimination
Of those surveyed, parents of color were more likely to report
their children have experienced school-based bullying, violence, or racism. About 39 percent of Asian parents, 37
percent of Latino parents, and 30 percent of Black parents, also said their child received unfair treatment at school.
King said
multiple times he has needed to raise concerns to administrators for his son,
who is one of the few Black students at
school. He once raised concerns that school work his son was given promoted negative associations with the color black.
'You have to be a big advocate on those things, if not [educators]
just assume everything is great,' King said.
Lainez said his son has witnessed violence and drugs in his middle school.
There's 'constant bullying for being Hispanic,' he said.
Mental health concerns
While concerns over their children's mental health and well-being
improved
from its peak during the height of the pandemic, 45 percent of parents
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Christina Alquinta, 53, from Lynn, has a sophomore daughter who has ADHD and receives accommodations through a 504 plan.
Alquinta said her daughter has benefited from her specialized program and will graduate high school with an associate's degree. Because of the support her daughter received through the specialized plan,
Alquinta feels confident in her daughter's mental health. But three-quarters of parents whose children have individualized education plans do have greater concerns about student mental health.
'Families are still worried about their children's academic progress and emotional wellbeing, and many of the challenges that were exposed during the pandemic still persist today,' Williamson said.
Maria Probert can be reached at
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