Rebuilding More Humane Schools Post-COVID-19: Prioritizing Student Engagement, Social-Emotional Learning and Well-Being
Summary
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student social-emotional learning (SEL) and mental health was a top concern of California voters in May 2021. Key state officials acknowledged early on in the pandemic that SEL and student well-being would be a great challenge for students and schools. These concerns were warranted. Countless people continue to suffer the physical, emotional, and economic effects of the virus and our students have been severely impacted in their academic and social-emotional development. Research shows that the pandemic has had a negative impact on student mental health and social-emotional health and has increased rates of anxiety and attempted suicides. Self-efficacy has worsened in elementary schools, particularly for low-income students. With existing gaps in SEL before the pandemic by race/ethnicity and how the pandemic disproportionately affected low-income and students of color, it is highly likely that inequities persisted or even broadened since then.
This brief analyzes new statewide post-COVID data on chronic absenteeism, academic motivation, student SEL and well-being, and school support staff shortages. It urges CA to focus its pandemic recovery efforts on improving student engagement, SEL, and well-being, with a targeted focus on vulnerable student groups such as low-income, English Learners, foster youth, and racial/ethnic minorities. The brief suggests efforts the state can lead and coordinate to ensure that LEAs can best utilize pandemic relief funding to make our school systems stronger during pandemic recovery.
Key Findings
Student Engagement: Chronic Absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism and student motivation changed drastically after the pandemic years. Chronic absenteeism rates in 2021-22 are alarming for certain vulnerable subgroups of students, including students in foster care (45%), Black students (40%) and students with disabilities (40%). For English Learners, chronic absenteeism has tripled. Transportation challenges, mental health issues, personal stress, chronic health conditions, teacher burnout, parental disengagement due to stress & burnout, and student disengagement due to unhealthy school climate are all key factors that contribute to chronic absenteeism.
Student Engagement: Academic Motivation
Academic motivation saw a significant decrease in the 2020-21 school year in both elementary (26%) and secondary schools (40%). An LAUSD report provides academic motivation scores for a sample of secondary school students that shows a drop in academic motivation in 2019-20 school year, when most secondary schools remained in remote or hybrid learning, and a slight recovery through 2021-22 school year for some grade levels, but not all.
Student Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Well-being
Evidence on the impact of the pandemic on SEL is still emerging, but an Educators for Excellence nationwide survey from May 2020 found that 46% of teachers said they were spending “somewhat” or “much more” time giving students social-emotional support and more than 60% had heard students express social-emotional concerns because of the pandemic. A May 2022 survey by The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that 87% of public schools reported that the pandemic had negatively impacted student socio-emotional development during the 2021–22 school year.
School Support Staff
Besides teachers, the school staff that are most directly responsible for attending to students’ overall well-being, emotional, and social needs are school counselors, school psychologists, nurses, and social workers. Despite the importance of student well-being, CA was one of the lowest ranked states in the nation in terms of school supports for student well-being and mental health. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a ratio of 250 students per school counselor. Their most recent 2022 report shared that CA has a ratio of 572 students per school counselor, more than double their recommendation. During the pandemic years, schools already maxed out of school support staff and capacity had to undertake new, and sometimes monumental efforts to help families and students navigate online learning and school. Schools with strong support systems and teachers that promote SEL and student well-being can buffer the effects of chronic stress and adversity better than schools without strong support systems.
Policy Recommendations
The state should take a strong leadership and coordination role to ensure LEAs know how to best utilize pandemic relief funding as well as Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) funds in ways that can help address the challenge of widening achievement, SEL, and school support staffing gaps. Efforts could include:
- Addressing chronic absenteeism as an urgent priority through data-based, real-time monitoring and family engagement in a culturally relevant way, particularly among vulnerable student subgroups and in some high-needs districts.
- Increasing school support staff to student ratios by hiring more school psychologists, social workers, school counselors, and nurses. Use State incentive and subsidy programs to enlarge the pipeline of these staff as well as solve more immediate challenges.
- Collecting better data for monitoring and accountability. Data and research can help educators and policy makers understand the consequences of their decisions and learn from them – this includes better monitoring and accountability efforts around school funding.
