As the Orland Park Elementary 135 board discussed hiring and placement of assistant principals in August, a top concern of several parents was expected behavior issues in kindergarten students who were born during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“Do we know what we, as a community, are up against?” asked Carolyn Blakshek, who said she is a parent to a Park School student.
“Our kindergartners are a group unlike any before,” Park School parent Sarah O’Malley said in appealing for assistant prinicipals at elementary schools.
District 135 changed plans at its next meeting, moving from hiring an additional assistant principal at Century Junior High to focusing on hiring two assistant principals to serve Park School and Center School, where prekindergarten through second grade students are educated.
District 135 board President Nichole Browner said staffing decisions, including hiring additional assistant principals “are made based on things such as program needs and student enrollment, not specifically in response to behavior concerns.”
“However, I can share that schools across the country have seen some shifts when in-person learning resumed,” Browner said. “In my opinion, in some instances, COVID has led to a loss of daily structure for students, which schools actively worked to rebuild through supports and programming.”
Such support helped students recognize and become reacclimated to the structure and expectations of a school day, she said.
Research, including a 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, indicates infants who were exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic in their first year of life are more likely to experience delays in socioemotional development.
It’s an experience that resonates with Tinley Park resident Kelly Laban, who said her daughter, Ella, was born six months before COVID-19 lockdowns began.
“The shutdown was March 14 and her baptism was supposed to be on the 15th, so right off the bat, she did not have a normal baptism,” Laban said.
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Laban said when she returned to work from maternity leave, Ella rejected her bottle and wouldn’t let anyone but her hold her for more than nine months.
“She was my first kid, so it’s really hard because I didn’t really know what to expect to begin with, and then having the whole world turned upside down was crazy,” Laban said.
To protect Ella during COVID-19, those outside Laban’s immediate family limited their contact with her.
Laban said her mother-in-law, worried about potentially transmitting the disease, wore an N-95 mask while babysitting Ella.
She noticed soon after that her daughter stopped making facial expressions with her mouth.
“There was a time period where she just kind of did this little tiny smirk, and then you could see her eyes, and it was like ‘oh my god, I think she’s just only used to seeing that part of her face.’”
Ella also exhibited speech delays. At 18 months, Laban took her to a speech therapist who also wore a face mask during all interactions.
“So that was super tough — for her to learn speech development and not be able to see (the therapist’s) mouth,” Laban said, ultimately deciding to pull Ella from speech therapy so the family could work on her communication themselves.
When it came time for now 6-year-old Ella to enter kindergarten in August, Laban said she and her husband were stressed and worried. She said Ella was eased into the idea of school with part-time prekindergarten, but transitioning to full-time schooling, with lots of new adults and children, was overwhelming.
Laban said she is grateful to Kirby District 140 teachers and administrators who provided opportunities ahead of the start of school for students and parents to acclimate together. Photos taken of parents and students together during one of those events was even hung in Ella’s class on the first day of school, Laban said.
“Overall, it does seem like it’s going OK,” Laban said, as Ella is now two months into the school year. “It’s just, I’m nervous one day she’s going to wake up and be like, ‘I don’t want to go anymore.'”
Garrett Podgorski, director of programs and support services for the South Cook Intermediate Service Center, said he has worked directly with 66 public school districts in south suburban Cook County to help them better serve students like Ella as well as older students facing their own challenges that correlate with pandemic disruptions.
He said as evidence emerges about the best ways to tackle behavior and social challenges in schools, his office works to connect schools with diverse programming to help teachers and schools best serve their students. They include leaning into technology coveted during the pandemic, including connecting four districts with programs that provide telehealth mental health supports at no cost to parents.
“It’s been so successful,” Podgorski said. “I got a report yesterday. Schools that had it for six days had already made 81 referrals.”
Podgorski said in light of behavioral and social challenges in children growing up with adverse experiences, many schools still exhibit or face stigmas when looking to offer these types of supports. As Illinois districts prepare to implement universal mental health screenings, Podgorski is looking to curb pushback from those critical of schools’ role in student intervention.
“Social-Emotional Learning sometimes becomes political,” Podgorski said. “So you’re just trying to help coach and guide and give some education about these topics and find where the truth is to best support students.”
Podgorski said other political issues affecting families, including escalating immigration enforcement, exacerbate some lingering challenges from the pandemic, such as chronic absenteeism.
“Right now probably about 70% of my role is to support attendance,” Podgorski said.
One study of adolescents found that three in four high school students experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, which are associated with poor mental health and suicidal behaviors, during the pandemic.
“I think on the extreme end, I think there are students who lash out more — they’re symptoms are even more severe,” Podgorski said.
Lynwood District 172 first grade teacher Kristin Hale said she and other teachers discuss the unique challenges children affected by the pandemic lockdowns face in the classroom, including students facing barriers that keep them from coming to school.
Hale said she’s noticed some of her 6- and 7-year-old students struggle to learn and exhibit behavior issues she believes are tied to pandemic-era traumas. She’s also noticed greater divides in students’ educational recovery based on their home lives.
“I do feel, at least in my district, there’s a lot of kids that are almost living in survival mode,” Hale said. “You see kids that are raised by grandparents, a lot of single parents. It’s just a struggle for a lot of these families.”
Podgorski said the South Cook Intermediate Service Center is in regular communication with districts to train modern approaches to driving student engagement while also acknowledging the struggles teachers continue to face helping students get on track.
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“The goes for admin too — they’re in charge of leading all this. It’s a lot of effort, so I feel like there’s a little lag, because the burnout’s not finished yet,” he said.