June 24, 2022
All Hands on Deck: Keeping Children and Families Safe at Home and School During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The ROSSEY team was in your schools talking to school staff, parents and students. We found out about how the community came together and worked to keep each other safe during COVID-19.
WHO PARTICIPATED
We heard from 26 parents, 18 students, and 19 school staff members
WHAT WE LEARNED
Community members worked hard to make the change back to in-person school easier
School staff and parents took on new and different roles to support students during COVID-19. They helped with technology issues at home during online learning, and used COVID safe practices during in-person learning. Together, parents and school staff tried their best to create a safe and healthy learning space for their children.
“The teachers, it was a big learning curve on how to do online. That was huge. They rose to the occasion. We all learned something about how to do our jobs differently.”
-School Staff
“The thing that I did, what I would do as a parent, definitely reach out to his teacher through email just kind of letting him know hey, is there anything else that we can do in our end as a parent…What can we do as a parent to support our children here and so as well as the resources at school?”
– Parent
Being open to testing and the vaccine comes from wanting to get back to “normal”
The community sees taking part in regular testing and getting the vaccine as a way of getting back to “normal”. They shared the importance of being able to enjoy “normal” things again. For example, going to public places, family events, and doing sports. We find that this community strongly cares about their families and wants to keep each other healthy.
Child interviewee after being asked why they would want to participate in a regular testing program:
“Well, I guess I would want to do it because I want everything to go back to normal like schools and stores and like, yeah, everything just to go back to normal.”– Student
Community members want to learn more before making choices about their children’s health
Parents want to protect their children. They want to learn about what COVID-19 testing looks like before agreeing to it. Parents want to make sure regular testing does not hurt the children and prefer doctors to do the test. For the vaccine, most parents want to wait to know more about the safety of it. The community learned about the vaccine from different places. These include political leaders, public health advice, and from family and friends. We mostly see that the community respects the decisions that other members make.
“I do believe in science and research. I know it’s best, but I still respect for parents or other members that do not want their children’s shots, they’re still not ready for it, I understand that.”
– School Staff Member
“Like I mentioned before I’ve been vaccinated. But when it comes to my kids especially since they’re young I would be afraid of the side effects for them especially since these vaccines were made too quickly. And I feel like they should have taken more time in learning more [about] the side effects, especially on children. That’s the thing that I would be fearful and I don’t know if I would feel comfortable enough to get my kids vaccinated.”
– Parent
RECOMMENDED CITATION:
Blanes, C., Ayala-Flores, J., Bishop, S., Duran, M., Aceves, L., Wool, J., Hwayoung, C., Garza, L., Linde, S., Ibarra, G., Ramirez, M., Garrison, M., Shaw, P., Ko, L.K. (2022). All Hands on Deck: Keeping Children and Families Safe at Home and School during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Seattle: Health Promotion Research Center
We appreciate the partnership and support of the Community Advisory Board and the Yakima School District on this project.
This research was, in part, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) agreement number 1 OT2 HD107544-01. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the NIH.