Schools across the United States prepare for a surge in kindergarten children in the fall
School districts across the United States are hiring additional teachers in anticipation of becoming one of the largest kindergarten classes to date as coronavirus enrollment recovers after a pandemic.
While waiting for the arrival of students who have completed their school year next fall, educators support that many students are less prepared than usual due to the low preschool enrollment rate.
Stephen Burnett, Senior Co-Director of the National Institute for Early Education at Rutgers University, said: He found that the number of preschool 4-year-olds attended decreased from 71% before the pandemic to 54% during the pandemic, making it much less likely that poor children would participate directly. Co-authored.
Kindergartens are not needed in most states. Parents usually wear “red shirts” on their kindergarten children in kindergarten classes to prepare them for a year of development. This year, even children near the cut-off age were absent from school due to health concerns and pandemic confusion.
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Among them was the daughter of Christina Neu. Her daughter is December’s birthday and the entry deadline is the end of August, so she’s already relatively old for the class, but she’s stopped. Throughout Kansas, kindergarten enrollment has fallen by nearly 9%.
“I was a little afraid that I didn’t have to deal with some unknowns there,” Neu said, saying that the eight-year-old eldest daughter had just been diagnosed with 26 food allergies before the pandemic. Her immune system was already overdriven. “We wanted to make sure that we were smart and safe as a family.”
Noi, who works at a retail store in Wichita, Kansas, cooked with her daughters, bought educational workbooks, and played educational games with her daughters. Although he has no regrets, he is worried about the burden on the kindergarten teacher.
“I’m really worried about stress and that only the teacher will accomplish everything in a big class,” she said.
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Due to the large amount of federal bailouts available, the school district is taking different approaches to its preparation.
In Orange County, Florida, it is estimated that there will be 17% more kindergarten classes than in the fall of 2020, and authorities are planning a five-and-a-half-week transition program at some of the poorest schools this summer.
Nearly 22% more kindergarten children are expected in the St. Paul area of ​​Minnesota than in the fall of 2020. The area will be tested in the summer to identify special needs that are being overlooked, such as vision problems and speech delay. , A veteran kindergarten teacher who is currently coordinating the district’s pre-kindergarten program.
She also said she just knew that the district was getting more money to expand the jump start to the kindergarten summer program. It includes a field trip to the strawberry patch and visits from dancers and painters.
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“The biggest thing about our radar is recognizing the trauma that has happened,” she said, adding that the district has a variety of staff “ready to make a noise.”
It is not yet clear how big the kindergarten classes will be in the fall. This increase could be offset by parents who decide to wait another year to send a 5-year-old child or choose homeschooling due to safety concerns.
Anyway, educators say they expect to deal with the effects of the pandemic for years.
Scott Elder, director of Albakirk Public School, said children who skipped kindergarten or homeschooled last year may be a little behind in numbers and letters. The same is true for children who register and study online, but they have always been connected to their parents and have not been able to receive support from them.
“When people talk about loss of learning and children’s delays, it’s not a quick solution. It’s going to be a multi-year solution, but it’s going to be.” ..
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In Connecticut, some school districts are targeting summer programs for upcoming kindergarten children who missed preschool. In an interview, the state’s chief academic officer, Irene Parisi, said the district is using federal bailouts to help and train the need to add staff and adjust their expectations.
“It’s important for teachers to understand that routines will probably be different from what they expected from learners in the past,” she said.
In the Freeman School District, which has 900 students in Rockford, Washington, Randy Russell hired a new teacher while preparing to add a third kindergarten class. He said that about one-third of preschoolers and kindergarteners in most rural areas about 15 miles (24.14 km) south of Spokane skipped this year’s school year, with similar declines in other parts of the region. Said there was.