COVID’s Impact on the Youngest Learners, Title IX Update - Legal Challenges and Local Impact, Racist Incidents Across CT Districts

COVID’s Impact on the Youngest Learners

As we enter the back-to-school season, experts are raising concerns about the pandemic's effects on the nation’s youngest learners—those who were babies and toddlers when COVID-19 first hit. According to The New York Times, while the impact of COVID on older students has been well-documented, the developmental and academic delays in children who were too young for formal schooling during the pandemic are just coming to light. These children now face challenges in behavior, socializing, emotional regulation, fine-motor skills, vocabulary, and other areas. Interventions for these youngest students will be an area to watch as this school year unfolds.

• The New York Times: The Youngest Pandemic Children Are Now in School, and Struggling

• Chalkbeat: The pandemic set younger kids back. Their struggle to recover is especially acute, data shows

Title IX Update: Legal Challenges and Local Impact

The US Department of Education's new Title IX regulations, aimed at expanding civil rights protections for students based on gender identity, have been put on hold in several states. An injunction by US District Judge John Broome, a Trump appointee, prevents enforcement of the new rules in Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming. According to the Hartford Courant, this injunction also extends to schools attended by the children of members of Moms for Liberty and other groups involved in the lawsuit—affecting numerous schools across the country, including in Connecticut. 

Despite the federal injunction, however, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) assures that state anti-discrimination laws still protect students' civil rights, regardless of gender identity or expression. Read the CSDE’s 2024 guidance for transgender or gender-diverse students here.

• MSNBC: Judge rejects Moms for Liberty's request to block protections for LGBTQ students in more than 800 counties

• Hartford Courant: Moms for Liberty, parents’ rights groups working to block new Title IX rule from their kids’ schools

• CT CGA Section 10-15c: Discrimination in public schools prohibited

• CSDE: Guidance on Civil Rights Protections and Supports for Transgender or Gender-Diverse Students

Racist Incidents Across CT Districts

Alison Cross had a must-read article over the weekend, which explored incidences of racism—from slurs and hate speech to bullying and death threats—across several public school districts in Connecticut this year. "In isolation, it’s easy to see these stories as a one-time occurrence,” the article explains. But “activists and community leaders say a complete picture paints a very different reality – one that speaks to a systemic pattern of racial hostilities in Connecticut schools that must be confronted head-on." Read the story here.

• Hartford Courant: An epidemic of racism is infecting Connecticut’s schools, officials say

• 2024 Incidences Referenced in the Hartford Courant Story: (Cheshire | Colchester | Cromwell | East Haddam | Glastonbury | West Hartford | Westport |  Wilton)

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