Coronavirus pandemic presents unique challenges for kindergarten education

Students of all ages have been adversely affected by the covid-19 pandemic, but educators say the stakes are especially high for kindergartners and preschool-aged children.

“Imagine being 5 and this is your world. What will be ‘normal’ to this generation of kindergartners?” said Michilene Pegher, principal of Minadeo Elementary in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

Preparing for an uncertain fall reopening, school districts are grappling with the challenges of getting kids registered and prepared for kindergarten, a process that is normally done in-person and helps to determine class sizes and staffing.

On top of the administrative backlog, educators worry about the long-term affects the extended school closure will have on the region’s youngest learners.

Every day, Pegher said she receives email messages from parents, exhausted from their attempts to teach their children at home. She hears from students, too, longing to return to school to see their friends and teachers.

She has been encouraging parents to go online to register their children for kindergarten and distributing packets to help the parents prepare their children, including simple activities such as pointing out numbers, letters and words on road signs while driving and reading to children often.

But face-to-face interaction at school is still vital at this stage in a child’s education, Pegher said.

If schools don’t reopen in the fall, Pegher worries about the loss the region’s youngest learners will experience. She said little lessons such as learning how to share, line up together or operate on a school schedule play a big role in children’s development.

“The social and emotional part is very important, and if we don’t go back, I wonder what the long-term effects of that will be,” she said.

Enrollment behind schedule

Much of the region is behind when it comes to kindergarten registration, said Chris Rodgick, a senior program director at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.

Rodgick runs the AIU’s “Hi5!” program, which partners with school districts to promote school readiness and on-time kindergarten registration. Rodgick estimated about 50% of children enrolled in the program are registered for kindergarten in April, compared to about two-thirds by that time in previous years.

“I think families are unsure of what the fall will look like,” she said. “If they don’t know what it looks like, are they going to sign up?”

She added that registering children for kindergarten has not been the top priority for families affected by illness, layoffs or job losses.

But kindergarten registration is an important benchmark for school districts, she emphasized. It helps them plan ahead to determine class sizes, staffing, room assignments and supplies.

West Jefferson Hills School District has been preregistering kindergartners since early December. The district estimated about 95% of next year’s kindergarten class was accounted for by late-April.

Matthew Patterson, assistant superintendent of elementary education, said the transition to an online registration system has helped.

“For us to know who those kids are gives us a chance to connect with them early and make that transition smoother,” he said. “From a logistics point of view, though, we have to know how many teachers to have on. The earlier we can confirm (enrollment) works better for us in our planning staffing and budget development and so on.”

Patterson said preparing the youngest students for instruction presents a unique challenge this year. The district can’t host its regular transition programs or orientation events, and he’s skeptical that classes will resume in the fall as they normally would. He worries the pandemic will complicate kids’ transition to school life and their learning progress.

“As good as our online program at West Jefferson is, it doesn’t replace the in-person instruction,” he said. “It doesn’t replace the relationships that children build with adults, with one another. It doesn’t replace the joy of socially interacting with one another.”

Loss of face-to-face

Hempfield Area School District is another one of many districts that has dropped its in-person orientation programs.

Matthew Conner, assistant superintendent of elementary education, said parents are normally invited to a “transition night” where they can tour their child’s elementary school building and meet teachers. That evening is being replaced by a virtual tour posted on the district’s website.

“That’s the sad part of this,” Conner said. “Because of the pandemic restrictions, we can’t have those face-to-face interactions right now.”

Conner said the covid-19 pandemic led the district to convert its kindergarten registration process into an online form, as many other districts have done. So far, the number of registrations is on track, which he said pleasantly surprised him.

But the loss of face-to-face communication with families has been a blow, educators said, noting kindergarten is often a parent’s first time sending their children away to school and many find the tours and meet-and-greets crucial in making the transition.

“Any kind of interaction we can have with students and parents is so valuable,” Conner said. “Just so they can feel more comfortable sending their kids in the fall, getting to know the building, getting questions answered. Sometimes, for these parents, this is their first time seeing their kid off into school, so there is a lot of trepidation. There’s a lot of fear and anxiety.”

Pegher, at Minadeo, said the uncertainty of the pandemic is making parents even more anxious.

“This is their first real experience with all-day school and a lot of parents are hesitant, and they should be,” Pegher said. “Imagine just signing your child up for whatever is going to happen in the fall and not having that ease-in (opportunity).”

She’s trying to get out into the community to encourage parents by word-of-mouth to register kids for kindergarten now — at least that way, she said, the school can provide materials to lessen the damage.

Rodgick, at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, said the best way for parents to prepare is to contact their local school district directly.