Abstract
In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, most schools across the country closed in-person instruction for a period of time and many shifted to online schooling. Beginning in fall 2020, schools around the United States began reopening and many districts offered families a decision or “choice” to return their children to an in-person or online schooling experience. In many cities, this approach complicated existing school choice and permanent closure policies with already existing equity issues. Building upon previous scholarship on school choice and closure, this study draws on the concept of school choice with(out) equity (Frankenberg et al., 2010; Scott & Stuart Wells, 2013; Horsford et al., 2019). Using data from an online survey (n = 155 participants) in August 2020, this study examines why families (50% white, 50% people of color) decided to return their children to in-person schooling in Hartford, Connecticut. This study uses a mixed-method analysis of qualitative responses and quantitative data to understand family decisions to return to in-person schooling (Creswell, 2014). Rather than school choices with full equity considerations during the pandemic, these family responses focused on needs of childcare for full-time work and health safety. These responses suggest a partial equity in the landscape of available choices. The study raises questions about reapplying old forms of school choice to a new form of temporary school closure during pandemic.
Highlights
In spring 2020, most of the United States closed in-person PK-12 public school buildings as the entire country faced the COVID-19 pandemic
This study aims to answer the following research question: Why did families decide for their children to return or not return to in-person education at schools in Hartford, Connecticut, during the COVID-19 pandemic in late summer 2020?
A response to temporary school closures during COVID-19 was the offer to families of a new form of schooling choice with partial, not full, equity
Summary
In spring 2020, most of the United States closed in-person PK-12 public school buildings as the entire country faced the COVID-19 pandemic. Scholars estimate that mandated in-person school closures likely reduced the incidence and mortality of the COVID-19 pandemic across the United States (Auger et al, 2020). During the following summer months, many state and district leaders across the U.S debated the reopening of public school buildings to offer in-person schooling in the fall of 2020. Depending on state and district policy, many families needed to make challenging decisions regarding whether and when to return their children to some form of school amidst a terrain of health and economic crisis with deep racial inequalities
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