School closures and COVID-19: Interactive Tool

While these measures are intended to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, there may be unintended consequences that impact the 5.7 million children and youth attending primary or secondary school in Canada. Some of these consequences are inter-connected and some children and youth will be more vulnerable than others to these impacts. For a visual overview of the inter-connected impacts of school closures on children and youth, see School closures and COVID-19: Impacts on children.

It may take years to fully measure and comprehend the effects of the pandemic on children and youth as some of these effects, such as potential learning loss, could have long-lasting consequences. When impacts of the pandemic have been measured, those already vulnerable were also shown to be disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As not all communities face the same vulnerabilities, this tool can help shed light on the degree to which some subpopulations may be more impacted than others.

This tool brings together existing baseline information about populations who were already vulnerable heading into the pandemic, as well as available data on some of the impacts of these temporary school closures.

The extent of temporary school and classroom closures in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 have differed markedly across Canada and within provinces. In Atlantic Canada, there was very little disruption to in-person learning in the fall and early winter of the 2020/21 school year. However, other areas of the country, school closures have been more frequent and more prolonged. These school closures and the change to remote learning may lead to notable impacts on the learning and academic success of students. Not all children and youth may find it easy to learn in a remote setting and, for some, there can be particular challenges to overcome.

In addition, students learning online also need access to an appropriate device. Overall, 58% of households that had internet access had less than one device per household member – not enough devices to support all household members learning and working from home at the same time. Among households in the lowest income quartile, 63% had less than one device for each household member compared to 56% of households in the highest income quartile.

Finally, the type of device available (for example a mobile device such as a cellphone) might not be appropriate for online learning. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of households in the lowest income quartile reported using only mobile devices for accessing the internet, three times higher than the share among households in the highest income quartile (8%). Households in the lowest quartile were also significantly more likely to use only mobile devices to access the internet than those in the second- and third-income quartiles (15% and 14%, respectively).

Some groups, such as groups designated as visible minorities, recent immigrants and Indigenous peoples are overrepresented among those in low income and may be more vulnerable to the economic impacts of COVID-19.  This implies that some groups would face disproportionate challenges in terms of accessing remote learning with adequate devices.

Prior to the pandemic, in 2018, about 60% of 15-year old students had principals that believed their schools had sufficient resources in place to support remote learning. Specifically, in the opinion of those principals, there were a sufficient number of qualified technical assistance staff, teachers with the necessary technical and pedagogical skills to integrate digital devices in instruction, an effective online learning support platform, and effective professional resources for teachers to learn how to use digital devices.

Preparedness among schools and their students was uneven across the country and differences were noted between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged Canadian schools. For example, about 88% of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged schools reported having access to a computer at home, compared to 98% of students from socioeconomically advantaged schools.

In the early months of the pandemic, a large proportion of parents expressed concern related to their child's school year and academic success. According to a crowdsourcing initiative conducted by Statistics Canada in June 2020, parents' concern about their children's school year varied by educational attainment: 42% of parent participants with a bachelor's degree or higher reported being concerned about their child's school year and academic success compared with 56% of parent participants with a high school diploma or less.

The frequency of children's participation in academic activities at home during the pandemic also varied by level of parental education. Eighty percent of participants with a bachelor's degree or higher reported that their children engaged in structured academic activities at home three times per week or more, compared with 72% of participants with a college certificate or diploma, 69% of those with a trades certificate or diploma and 67% of participants with a high school diploma or less.

Children with disabilities

Children with disabilities may be more vulnerable to challenges with remote learning. According to a crowdsource initiative by Statistics Canada, in the first few months of the pandemic, 58% of parent participants whose children had a disability reported being very or extremely concerned about the school year and their children's academic success, compared with 36% of parent participants whose children had no disabilities.

Children with disabilities may require a greater amount of their parents' time for help with not only their school activities, but also with other daily activities. A higher proportion of these participants (32%) also reported spending at least ten hours or more per week supporting their children's learning compared to participants whose families did not include a child with a disability (23%).

Specifically, children with disabilities, including a learning disability, may be disproportionately affected by the move to remote learning. School supports for those children may be less available and they may require more of their parents’ support than usual.

Beyond the academic benefits, schools can also serve as a place to get exercise and stay healthy through physical education and extracurricular activities like sports. The pandemic may also have an impact on reduced physical activity for children as organized and community sports were suspended. Thus, with the pandemic in general, and school closures specifically, there could be an impact on children’s daily physical activity and an increase in the time children and youth spend in front of a screen.

In the summer of 2020, 64% of parents were already concerned about the amount of screen time that their children were engaging in during the pandemic. Almost nine in ten participants said that their children were engaging in screen time daily or almost every day.

Even before the pandemic, 61% of children and youth did not meet the physical activity guidelines in Canada. While this has been relatively stable since 2007, the pandemic may have an important impact.

With remote learning and school closures, children may feel isolated from their peers and friends. In addition, and as noted elsewhere, there could be new stresses associated with challenges with learning in this environment.

In addition, with fewer interpersonal interactions, in-school support for mental health may be less likely to be available to children and youth.

While the pandemic has had an impact on the mental health of Canadians in general, youth participants in a Statistics Canada crowdsourcing initiative were the most likely to report a negative impact on their mental health since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Almost two-thirds (64%) of those aged 15 to 24 reported a negative impact of the pandemic on their mental health, while just over one-third (35%) of those aged 65 and older reported a negative impact on their mental health since physical distancing began. Similarly, those participants aged 15 to 24 were most likely (41%) to report symptoms consistent with moderate or severe anxiety in the early months of the pandemic. This age group was already more likely to report lower mental health before the pandemic began.

Access to appropriate tools for remote learning (such as an Internet-enabled device) was more of a challenge for families in low income heading into the pandemic. With large disruptions in Canada's economy and additional pressures on parents to balance their jobs with supporting their children, these families could be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of school closures and remote learning.

In 2018, just over one in ten (11%) of children and youth aged 0 to 17 lived in low income. In addition, some groups, such as groups designated as visible minorities, recent immigrants and Indigenous peoples are overrepresented among those in low income and may be more vulnerable to the economic impacts of COVID-19.

Based on the most recent available national-level data, about 9% of households with children aged 4-17 experienced food insecurity in 2017/2018. Certain population groups are more likely to be food insecure, such as lone-parent households, individuals who rely on government assistance as their main source of income and individuals who rent their home.

With the onset of the pandemic, those who experienced household food insecurity were significantly more likely to report poorer mental health outcomes. Children and youth who lived in households that were food insecure before the pandemic may have relied, at least partially, on food programs available through schools. With schools closed, and such programs interrupted, these children may be particularly vulnerable to food insecurity at this time.

With the closure of schools and other activities, children are more-or-less restricted to the confines of their home. For children who were already at risk of being victims of family violence, school would no longer be available as a safe space.

In 2019, there were 69,691 child and youth victims (aged 17 and younger) of police-reported violence in Canada. Of these victims, 22,299 children and youth were victimized by a family member. A parent (60%) was the most common perpetrator, followed by another type of family member—such as a grandparent, uncle or aunt—or a sibling. This was the case for both female and male victims.

Not all communities have felt the impacts of COVID-19 in the same way. Canadians, including children and youth, of diverse backgrounds have reported experiencing discrimination since the start of the pandemic. Various studies have shown that some groups, including recent immigrants, Indigenous people and groups designated as visible minorities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

One study, for example, found that immigrants and groups designated as visible minorities (such as Black Canadians and Filipinos) formed a larger proportion of front-line workers, including nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates. Many of these workers have children at home and this suggests that some groups of Canadians, including children and youth, may have been at greater risk of exposure to the virus than others. In addition, neighbourhoods with higher proportions of the population identifying as population groups designated as visible minorities have experienced higher rates of mortality due to COVID-19 as well.