Why Parents Kept Their Kids Home From School

Last fall, reports from New York City and other large public school districts highlighted a worrisome pattern—parents of white children were tending to send their kids back to school in person, while parents of children of color were disproportionately opting to keep them learning at home.

At the time, many commentators and experts speculated as to the reasons for the disparity. Maybe it was racial differences in families’ trust in the public school system—differences rooted in decades of underinvestment in and mistreatment of Black students and other students of color in school. Or maybe it was white parents’ lack of concern about the risks of the pandemic, a reflection of politicized misinformation about the coronavirus and the privilege of living in communities less affected by COVID-19. But back then, with limited data, pinning this down with any certainty was impossible.

Now, with the benefit of more data, the story of race and school reopenings is becoming clear. My colleagues and I conducted an online survey of 1,668 U.S. parents with school-age children, which, that the biggest factor for many families was rather concrete: whether a parent or other adult was available during the school day to supervise kids. And because of racial inequality in America—and, specifically, because of that came early in the pandemic—whether such an adult was home varied greatly by race.