Introduction

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed life in this country almost overnight. The nation began sheltering in place: school buildings were closed, playgrounds locked, and child care facilities shuttered, dramatically upending families’ lives in the process. Life—and learning—were hastily moved online.

Students’ unequal access to broadband and digital devices have concerned educators and policymakers for years. But when the pandemic shifted schooling into remote learning, a stable internet connection and functional digital device were no longer part of a quality education; they became the only way for families with school-aged children to continue learning at home. As remote learning stretched from weeks, to months, and then to whole school terms, it became clear that digital inequality was affecting the ability of students in lower-income families to remain engaged in school virtually. Some of these families’ digital equity issues have been well documented, but there is still much more that policymakers and educators need to know about their experiences learning at home during the pandemic, and their priorities for school next year.

This report presents the findings of a nationally representative, probability-based telephone survey of more than 1,000 parents of children ages three to 13, all with household incomes below the national median for families in the United States (i.e., $75,000).¹ The survey was conducted in March and April of 2021: one year into the pandemic, and a crucial turning point. Parents could reflect on a full year of remote learning and pandemic parenting, and also look forward—thanks to the proliferation of vaccines—to their children’s full and safe return to in-person schooling in the fall.

In the survey, we focus on seven key topics:

• Access to computers and home internet service
• Educational disruptions that occurred due to insufficient access
• Assets that parents gained by having to guide their children’s remote learning, which educators can build on going forward
• Parents’ priorities for their children’s return to school in September 2021
• The role of informal educational media² in helping children to continue to learn and grow during the pandemic
• Whether and how early childhood reading patterns changed during COVID
• How parents, children, and siblings engaged technology to learn together at home

In documenting digital access, we not only cover families that are “unconnected,” but the more common experience we define as being “under-connected”; that is, families whose access is unreliable or insufficient for their needs. We also explore how variations in being under-connected relate to the extent of educational disruptions that families have experienced in the past year.

But this survey goes beyond documenting families’ challenges. We also uncover what parents feel they have learned through this pandemic year, from increased confidence in their ability to help their child with schoolwork to greater comfort communicating with teachers and developing a deeper understanding of their child’s learning patterns. And we look ahead to the next school year, delving into what parents think schools’ priorities should be for smoothing their children’s transitions to, or back into, the classroom in the fall of 2021.

There are two aspects of our research design that distinguish this study from the many that have been conducted on U.S. families’ experiences during the pandemic. First, because our survey focuses exclusively on families raising children on household incomes below the national median, we can explore meaningful variations among lower-income families related to race/ethnicity, immigrant generation, geography, parent education, and whether or not the family’s income is below the federal poverty level.³

Second, we contacted parents by cellular and landline telephone, whereas most surveys on the pandemic’s effects on students and families have relied on web-based, online panels. The sampling strategies these panels use have become more robust, but we maintain that a study of digital inequality and its effects is inherently more inclusive when participating does not require using those very same technologies.

All statistical findings in this report are from the quantitative survey data. Data were analyzed by demographic categories including child age, household income, parent education, geographic location, parent race/ethnicity, and, among Hispanic⁴ parents, whether they were U.S.- or foreign-born.

According to the 2019 American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, among parents with below-median incomes and three- to 13-year-old children, 44 percent are White non-Hispanic, 32 percent are Hispanic (20 percent foreign-born and 12 percent U.S.-born), 17 percent are Black, 4 percent are Asian-Pacific Islander, and 3 percent are other or mixed race/ethnicity.⁵

With a sample size of just over 1,000 respondents, we are able to report findings by race/ethnicity for families with White, Hispanic, or Black parents, but there are too few respondents in racial or ethnic groups that compose smaller shares of the population for us to be able to examine them separately (although they are included proportionally in the full sample).

The report also includes representative quotes drawn from open-ended questions in the survey and from a series of companion focus groups that were conducted virtually during April 2021 with parents in Detroit, MI; Pittsburgh, PA; and in Santa Clara County, CA (in and around San Jose).

The pandemic made it clear that high-speed, consistent internet connectivity and fully functional digital devices are a necessity, not a luxury. The importance of being connected will not fade away once schooling resumes nationwide. Technology is essential for students and their families: for communicating with teachers, tracking assignments, checking grades, researching projects, watching tutorials, practicing skills, or investigating extracurricular activities.

True educational opportunity demands digital equity. Unequal access to digital devices caused a massive, nationwide scramble for families in the spring of 2020.⁶ We need to build on what we have learned from this crisis to ensure that families and educators have the digital tools they need to support children’s transitions out of remote and hybrid learning—and to help all children to realize their full potential in the critical years ahead.