COVID-19 and the Working Parent
What to do if the schools closed
I have a luxury. I am in graduate school. As I observe the number of COVID-19 infections grow by ten thousand each week, and hear of regional lockdowns, major conference cancellations, and school closures, I take a minute to consider what it might mean if my children’s school closed.
Thankfully, I am in a position to be home, mostly, to monitor them and goad them through whatever online substitute curriculum the district or my family conceives of. But not everyone is.
And, despite the old trope of kids dancing down the halls on the last day of school, not everyone is glad when the doors close behind them. According to the New York Times, there were 114,085 homeless children in New York City public schools in 2019.
The National Center for Children in Poverty says fifty-six percent of NYC children live in low-income households.
Think about how these children will be affected if their schools closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
For low-income children, school is not only a place to learn, but it is a center for social services. It is where they get reliable meals, a visit with a nurse, sometimes a dental cleaning, support from a social worker, and build and maintain community bonds of peer friendship and support…
