Schooling amidst a pandemic: parents’ perceptions about reopening schools and anticipated challenges during COVID-19

Introduction During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous states in the United States instituted measures to close schools or shift them to virtual platforms. Understanding parents’ preferences for sending their children back to school, and their experiences with distance learning is critical for informing school reopening guidelines. This study characterizes parents’ plans to send their children to school, and examines the challenges associated with school closures during the 2020-2021 academic year. Methods A national-level cross-sectional online survey was conducted in September 2020. Focusing on a subset of 510 respondents, who were parents of school-aged children, we examined variations in parents’ plans for their children to return to school by their demographic and family characteristics, and challenges they anticipated during the school-year using multivariable logistic regressions. Results Fifty percent of respondents (n=249) said that they would send their children back to school, 18% (n=92) stated it would depend on what the district plans for school reopening, and 32% (n=160) would not send their children back to school. No demographic characteristics were significantly associated with parents plans to not return their children to school. Overall, parents reported high-level of access to digital technology to support their child’s learning needs (84%). However, those who reported challenges with distance learning due to a lack of childcare were less likely not to return their children to school (aOR=0.33, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.64). Parents who reported requiring supervision after school had higher odds of having plans to not return their children to school (aOR=1.97, 95% CI: 1.03, 3.79). Parents viewed COVID-19 vaccines and face masks important for resuming in-person classes. Discussion About one-third of parents surveyed objected to their children returning to school despite facing challenges with distance learning. Besides access to vaccines and face masks, our findings highlight the need to better equip parents to support remote learning, and childcare.