What Can Educators Expect When Students Return to School?
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| Megan Rauch Griffard |
Thousands of students across North Carolina experienced significant disruptions in their schooling during Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. The school shutdowns contributed to lengthy recoveries, with impact on the mental health of students and staff.
Our team of researchers at the Education Policy Institute at Carolina, a division of UNC-Chapel Hill, with funding by the National Science Foundation, studied how administrators at the school and district levels dealt with the recovery process of these recent natural disasters. Although the global COVID-19 pandemic is an event of unprecedented scale, there are important parallels from these previous disruptions that can inform practitioners and researchers as they move forward now.
We interviewed 53 school and district administrators and surveyed more than 3,000 educators across 15 districts in North Carolina following these two devastating hurricanes, which caused catastrophic damage and 70 deaths.
We have captured four takeaways from their experience relating to social, emotional and academic impacts. These may inform school leaders on what to expect when they reopen their buildings to students later this fall or sometime in 2021.
»Expect a long recovery.
Regaining a sense of normalcy took considerable time, even in schools that were fortunate to have lost few instructional days due to the hurricane. As one principal remarked, “We were still teaching here, but being able to absorb and learn and retain (was) very difficult when you’ve been through a traumatic event.”
Nearly three-quarters of respondents said the hurricanes had a severe impact on instructional delivery, and 40 percent reported a significant impact on instructional quality. Teachers responding to the survey estimated it took more than a year for students to recover fully after Hurricane Matthew. School districts affected by both hurricanes found it especially difficult to manage recovery.
When school buildings reopen in 2020-21, school districts that have experienced recent disruptions or difficult circumstances prior to COVID-19 will see that the challenges of one will not replace the other. Rather they will co-occur, which can make recovery more complicated. Schools affected by Hurricane Matthew did leave district leaders better equipped two years later with the knowledge of the long, hard road for recovery. As one principal observed, “It’s a long-term process. It’s not an overnight fix. It takes years, and not just one year or two years.”
»Prepare for new logistical challenges.
As one educator in our study put it, “So many of the problems that we dealt with … were out of our hands. We didn’t create that problem, but we were responsible for the solution.” Logistical problems included tracking down students who did not return to school upon reopening, creating alternate bus routes for relocated students and coordinating pro-visions of supplies and resources to students and families.
To this final point, schools came up with creative ways to help those in need. One school passed out notecards to returning students and asked them to write down anything they needed for support. This effort was so successful the principal said, “That’s something we actually plan on carrying on even though we don’t have a natural disaster, hopefully not any time soon. Doing those check-ins with your student body is so important. Kids aren’t going to tell, but sometimes they will if you ask the question.”
»Navigate students’ emotions, trauma and grief.
Educators said students’ emotional well-being took priority over academics upon reopening. Teachers gave students time to talk, write journal entries or draw pictures about their experiences, while others created lessons and projects that helped students better understand the disasters. Trauma researchers have found these types of supports are important ways to help students process difficult experiences.
School leaders in the study cautioned these disasters can carry a long-term impact on students’ mental health. Principals talked about the hurricanes triggering past traumatic experiences for some students, and others reported students seemed more agitated or more anxious. Teachers documented more challenges with student behavior, especially among those who had experienced significant loss.
Students struggled to cope with changes in living arrangements. In many cases, students enrolled in different school districts after the storms because families had either lost their homes or a parent became unemployed. Some families moved in with relatives or friends in another area, which shifted family dynamics.
These major life changes were stressful for students. Three quarters of the educators believed that school resources helped students navigate their emotions. School social workers and counselors worked tirelessly to connect families with local organizations that could offer them supplies and support.
Over 90 percent of survey respondents said that students’ mental health was a long-term concern after the disasters, and 77.4 percent felt that school resources were successful in helping students navigate their emotions.
»Expect myriad new stressors for teachers.
Emotional support for teachers was crucial to recovery, especially because the added responsibility of caring for students and their communities increased stress for educators. More than 80 percent of teachers said they had concerns about their own mental health after the storm, and 94 percent expressed concern about their colleagues’ mental health. As one district administrator noted, “I think our teachers face secondary trauma all the time — again, not just from natural disasters, but from all other factors that our children face: domestic violence, poverty, mental health, abuse.”
Additionally, teachers often sacrificed their own time and well-being to help their communities. One teacher in the study organized an outreach event to help the elderly the day after he had lost his own home to Hurricane Florence.
Some worried about the long-term emotional toll the crisis would take on teachers.
Recovery Recommendations
Participants in our study offered suggestions to improve recovery. All emphasized the importance of communication and collaboration within districts and schools. Having clear, regular communication among leadership, staff and families facilitated a quicker recovery.
“The biggest thing is just that you always have to be flexible — flexible and understanding,” said one district administrator. “Obviously, you always have procedures in terms of how to do things, but ultimately, we’re in a people business, and you always have to be flexible in terms of trying to figure out [how to] help a kid or a family in order to make sure they get the needs they need. Then they can get back to a normal life. Then a kid can be successful in school when they come back.”
Many educators wished they had access to professional development sessions that would direct them on how to modify existing curriculum structures. Administrators and teachers expressed support for adjusting, condensing and expanding modules given that students lost critical instructional time from school closures. Others looked for ways to implement trauma-informed teaching practices to help students navigate the crisis.
MEGAN GRIFFARD is a research assistant at the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina at the School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Twitter:
@UNCPublicPolicy.
CASSANDRA DAVIS and
SARAH FULLER are research professors in the School of Public Policy, and
CINTIA BORTOT is a research assistant with the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina.