Children who were babies and toddlers during the COVID-19 pandemic are showing signs of delays in developmental and academic skills in school, The New York Times reported.
Younger students are struggling with fine motor skills, such as holding pencils, and social skills, including playing with other children and communicating needs, the NYT reported, citing interviews with dozens of educators, pediatricians and early childhood experts. The pandemic appears to have disrupted early development in children who were at an age where they typically are at home by not being around as many adults, not being able to play with peers and being increasingly behind screens.
“I spent a long time just teaching kids to sit on the carpet for one book. That’s something I didn’t need to do before,” David Feldman, a kindergarten teacher in Florida, told the NYT.
Some preschoolers are struggling to properly control their emotions and show violence by throwing objects and hitting others, the NYT reported.
“We are talking 4- and 5-year-olds who are throwing chairs, biting, hitting, without the self-regulation,” Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of National Head Start Association, told the outlet. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post |
Nearly $2 billion in federal aid flowed into Colorado school districts’ coffers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and, with that money, they expanded tutoring for children, started after-school and summer programs and increased mental health services.
But that temporary funding is drying up and if districts haven’t already spent the money, they must do so by a Sept. 30 deadline.
Colorado received $1.8 billion in federal pandemic aid through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund to help schools respond to the pandemic, including the move to remote learning in 2020, and to help children recover learning losses.
The influx of so-called ESSER funds came in three installments, with the last one, in 2021, being the largest payment at almost $1.2 billion, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
Most district officials said they knew the funding wouldn’t last forever, but unless they are able to find money elsewhere in their budgets for the positions they filled and programs they started with ESSER funds, those will end as well.
“It will be a big loss not to have it, but we always knew it was a grant,” said Chuck Carpenter, chief financial officer of Denver Public Schools, which received more than $325 million in ESSER funds, according to tracking by the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.
DPS spent the aid money on summer programs to help address students’ learning losses from the pandemic. Money also went to other projects, such as improving and tracking air quality in schools.
“We tried to deploy the money in a way that was one-time in nature and not put it in recurring costs,” Carpenter said.
DPS is now going to have to scale back on summer programs and incentives the district gives when hiring for open positions, he said.
“One-time funding has been spent” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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