Claire Reagan was feeling overwhelmed as her oldest child's first day of kindergarten approached and with a baby on the way. The 5-year-old boy has autism, and she worried he would struggle with juggling in-person and virtual learning, and that she wouldn't have enough time to give him the help he needs.
So she decided to wait a year before sending him to school.
"I was stressed about everything and then thought 'Why does he need to start kindergarten?' And it was like a weight was lifted," said Reagan, a 36-year-old high school teacher in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, Kansas.
Thousands of parents around the US have made similar decisions, having their children delay or skip kindergarten because of the coronavirus pandemic
"If there is a group for which you would be particularly concerned, it is these very young students who are not having these foundational experiences," said Nate Schwartz, a professor at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.
Kindergarten isn't required in most states, and in normal times parents sometimes "red-shirt" children who would be young for their kindergarten class to give them an extra year of developmental readiness..
In Los Angeles' public schools, kindergarten enrollment is down about 6,000 students, or 14%. In Nashville, Tennessee, public kindergarten enrollment is down about 1,800 students, or 37%, from last year.
According to a University of Oregon survey conducted in early September with 1,000 parents from around the US, including 242 with a child who was supposed to start kindergarten this fall, 17% of respondents said they were delaying their children's schooling. Among those, the most frequent reason cited was safety concerns, followed by concerns about managing virtual schooling and other responsibilities, according to Philip Fisher, a psychology professor at the university who is leading an effort to measure the effect of the pandemic on young children and their families.
For many young students, the delayed start of primary school follows a disrupted preschool experience. Among preschool-age children, participation rates plummeted in the spring, as programs closed and children stopped attending, according to a report from the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. The group is planning a follow-up report, but all indications are that enrollment hasn't fully rebounded, said Steven Barnett, senior co-director of the institute.
He said public preschool programs such as Head Start have been "substantial equalizers" for low-income families.
Some parents feel their children may be ready for in-person school but not for virtual school, said Anna Markowitz, an assistant professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"They are thinking I can't work and monitor my child's Zoom schooling. Parents are really in an impossible situation," she said.
Only 17 states and Washington, DC., require children to attend kindergarten, Markowitz said.
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine released a report in July focused on younger children. Its advice was to prioritize the reopening of schools for children in kindergarten through fifth grade with well-funded safety measures in place. But since the report was released, high rates of community spread have made in-person learning more risky in many communities, turning young learners into virtual learning guinea pigs.
