Addressing the Consequences of School Closure Due to COVID‐19 on Children's Physical and Mental Well‐Being

TLDR

School closures during COVID‑19 have disrupted children’s lives, upended families, and removed essential nonacademic services such as health, mental health, food assistance, and support for vulnerable children. This article examines the physical and emotional toll of school closures and the loss of nonacademic supports that students depend on. The pandemic highlights schools’ critical role in meeting children’s nonacademic needs, suggesting that returning students will face heightened demand for such services and that COVID‑19 offers a chance to reform and strengthen these supports.

Abstract

Prolonged school closures are one of the most disruptive forces in the COVID-19 era. School closures have upended life for children and families, and educators have been forced to determine how to provide distance learning. Schools are also an essential source of nonacademic supports in the way of health and mental health services, food assistance, obesity prevention, and intervention in cases of homelessness and maltreatment. This article focuses on the physical and emotional toll resulting from school closures and the withdrawal of nonacademic supports that students rely on. The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a spotlight on how important schools are for meeting children's nonacademic needs. We argue that when students return to school there will be a more acute and wider-spread need for school-based nonacademic services and supports. Further, we expect that COVID-19 will serve as a focusing event opening a window of opportunity for programmatic and policy change that improves nonacademic services and supports in the future.