Families face a challenging decision on whether to send their kids back to school this fall while the coronavirus continues to spread. Fears of their children catching the virus weigh heavy on the minds of many parents, but so does the idea of their children falling behind if they don’t get the type of standardized education made available by in-person tutelage.
When asked to describe their children’s learning situation this fall semester, a plurality of K-12 parents (34%) say their kids will start the school year with full-time remote-learning. The YouGov survey conducted among 412 K-12 parents in August reveals that 29 percent of these parents say their children will be receiving full-time in-person education.
Roughly a quarter of K-12 parents (26%) say their children will experience some hybrid of the two types of education, meaning they’ll spend some days in-person at school and other days learning remotely online.
Whether to send a child to school for in-person learning is not the only tough decision parents of K-12 students must make this year. Schools are now the center of attention in the debate over if face masks or coverings should be required of students in the fall. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention recommends that teachers, students, and school staff wear face coverings on buses, in between classes, and in classrooms when it is difficult to maintain social distancing.
Parents of K-12 students seem to be on board with the CDC’s recommendation. Nearly three in four K-12 parents (73%) support making masks mandatory for children attending K-12 schools in the fall. Roughly a fifth of these parents oppose the idea (21%). There’s stronger support among K-12 parents in urban areas than among those who reside in suburban/town areas (81% vs. 67%)
And when it comes to who should be most responsible for providing these masks for students, most K-12 parents who support a mask mandate say it should be parents (56%) rather than schools (34%).
See the full results from this survey here
Methodology: The YouGov survey is based on the interviews of 412 parents who say they have at least one child who will attend kindergarten through 12th-grade in the fall. All interviews were conducted online between August 14 – 18, 2020. Results have been weighted to be nationally representative.
Image: Getty
