Elementary School Children’s Vaccines: A “Game Changer”?

By, Maria Khan, Aaron Leo, and Kristen C. Wilcox

After all New York state schools shifted to remote instruction in March 2020, elementary school students were among the first to go back to in-person instruction. Most of these elementary school students benefitted from more in-person instruction than their middle and high school peers throughout the pandemic but also faced a number of unique challenges as did their elementary school leaders, teachers, and support staff. One of those challenges related to concerns over student and staff safety as young children were not approved for vaccinations until recently.

According to recent data, more than 2.6 million children under the age of 12 have already received their first COVID-19 vaccination. The question has been: Will the availability of children’s vaccines be a game changer by allowing children to return to the more regular and predictable school schedules parents and caregivers could expect pre-pandemic?

Elementary School Children’s Vaccines: A “Game Changer”?

As the beginning of the 2021-22 school year began, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona characterized child and youth vaccine availability as a “game changer” for the nation’s public school system pointing to the ability of schools to bring back millions of students to school for consistent in-person instruction.

However, as the 2021-22 school year unfolded, leaders across the country attempted to make sense of changing COVID protocols, with some district leaders applying vaccine mandates, test to stay options, seating and masking rules, and/or quarantining to mitigate and address new COVID-19 cases.

COVID-19,  as a “novel” virus, has presented itself as an unruly player in this game forcing elementary schools to pause in-person instruction periodically due to any combination of staff shortages and exposures and sickness associated with COVID-19 among children and adults. Some school districts have even had to close entirely for a week or more to try to break the chain of infection in a fall term that came with high hopes for a return to normal scheduling.

While higher vaccination rates in elementary schools could help end COVID-related school closures, quarantining, and a significant reduction in remote instruction for children ages 5-11, the staff shortages in elementary schools are a remaining concern.

NYKids Preliminary Findings on the Effects of the Pandemic on the Elementary School Workforce

In NYKids’ ongoing study, “Discovering the Impacts of the COVID-19 on the Educator Workforce”, we have found that educators report COVID-19 related disruptions have negatively impacted children’s learning opportunities as well as negatively impacted the mental health and social-emotional well-being of students, caregivers, and educators alike.

Elementary school educators who responded to our survey spoke to two central concerns.

Safety

In our NYKids survey study, educators were asked about how they and their students were experiencing the pandemic. Educators expressed concerns about their safety and the safety of their students especially as they returned to in-person instruction. As one teacher explained:

“Teaching is stressful, but I’ve never felt the anxiety and concern for health and safety of my students, their families, myself, or my loved ones like I do now.”

Another teacher explained how the myriad of stressors involved with teaching in public schools today have been exacerbated by concerns about the virus:

“[We’ve] had to worry about budget cuts, state testing, and catching COVID ourselves.”

Predictability

Educators also articulated concerns about the effectiveness of their schools’ reopening plans and frustrations over what seemed like ever-changing protocols. One teacher reported:

“I feel as though all the constantly changing rules and regulations have added an immeasurable amount of stress onto a career that is already stressful enough.”

Describing the impact of the changing rules and regulations in their school, one teacher explained,

“The pressure of never knowing ‘the right thing’ can be difficult. Conflicting reports, uncertainty and other people’s stress impact me most in the day to day.”

Vaccines were a topic brought up by several NYKids’ survey respondents. While a few expressed some hesitancy towards the vaccine and concerns over mandates, other respondents described the relief that they felt once able to get vaccinated. One teacher explained:

“I feel much less nervous about contracting the virus in school now that I have had both COVID vaccines. I was very nervous up until then.”

Similarly, another teacher reported:

“My answers to how I have felt “in the last month” would have been very different prior to being vaccinated. I feel much safer and positive about my job now that I am fully vaccinated.”

The research on crisis management in schools speaks to the importance of communications and the provision of mental health supports for children and adults who work with them to mitigate the stress that comes from safety and predictability concerns.

As described in a previous NYKids’ blog, two-way parent and caretaker communications are critical. So, too, and as discussed in recent conversations with local schools leaders, are the qualities and frequencies of school leaders’ communications with staff, parents/caretakers, and community members.

Moving Forward

NYKids will be continuing to research the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education workforce in the coming months focusing our attention on adaptability and innovation during times of crisis. We look forward to disseminating our findings from this ongoing research project and we welcome any of your questions. Please see our previous blog posts on the effects of the pandemic and school closures on students and educators.

As always, we thank you for your interest in NYKids and encourage you to reach out to nykids@albany.edu for further insights and school improvement needs.