Schools and child care centers across the country are having to adapt to how they provide students and families with education and care amid the ongoing pandemic.
A web series addressing how education and child care had changed during the last several months gave insight as to what education leaders are facing now.
Child care is now having to limit how many children they can accept, and parents ate struggling to meet the financial needs of daycare.
At Columbus City Schools, Superintendent Dixon said more families are choosing not to enroll their children in pre-kindergarten schooling this year.
“We are not seeing as many of our families sending their kids to pre-k, so we don’t have that extra year to prepare our students for kindergarten,” Dixon said.
She explained that’s why teachers and other school workers are trying to make sure their students are prepared to handle changes on different levels and have what they need outside of a learning environment.
“This week we’ve decided that students under 18 can come and pick up a hot meal for the day and a breakfast for the next day,” Dixon said.
She and others on the web series call said providing students with basic needs is now on the top of their list instead of usual testing and other schooling requirements.
Dixon said the district is working to create plans for students in the spring. She explained it’s difficult to compare CCS to other districts considering how large CCS is and how differently they must operate.