OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Now that many students are back in the classroom after months of remote learning due to the pandemic, educators and parents are assessing how much the pandemic truly affected kids.
They are seeing some side effects of remote learning and say many kids aren't where they should be.
"I’d say behaviorally he’s adjusting a little better now that we’re back to five days a week and he is getting more socialization in terms of his behaviors. But academically no, he’s still really really behind. I know one thing was multiplication," said Jennifer McConnell-Clark, a parent to a third-grader.
McConnell-Clark said she's noticed her son has a hard time focusing. Due to having to work full-time, she wasn't able to sit down with him every day and help him with school. She said she's seen her son decline significantly academically.
Educators say many students' education has suffered. They expect it's going to take two to three years to get kids back on track and for some kids maybe even longer than that.
"Your normal student who was on track before COVID a lot of them are a few months trailing what they’d normally be at this time of the year, and schools again are doing their best to make up that ground but it’ll probably take us a couple years to recover from that time frame," Lacey Hoffman, Regional Director of Sylvan said. "The group we see affected the most though are the kids that came into COVID already behind and already struggling and that remote learning just isn’t enough for a lot of them so that made it even more challenging for those kids so they’re struggling maybe even more now than they were before."
Teachers have to continue to move forward with the curriculum while still going back and reviewing the material causing students to struggle.
"There’s those kids who are really smart who automatically learn things faster and they may be able to make up some of this but I think those kids who already struggle it’s impossible for them to make this up, not without us taking the time to slow down and say hey we should probably slow down and repeat the last year’s material," McConnell-Clark said.
Educators say if you think you're child may be falling behind go back to the basics. They suggest sitting and reading with them, reviewing multiplication and subtraction, and playing with flashcards. They also suggest having good communication with your student's teacher.
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