The Unequal Responses to Pandemic-Induced Schooling Shocks

This article investigates the existence of socio-demographic gradients in the schooling shocks experienced by school-aged children and their ability to adjust to the disruptions induced by the containment measures imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on documenting racial, educational, and income disparities in these two es-sential components of children’s human capital accumulation that could have significant implications in the medium and long run. The article finds that children in households from disadvantaged socio-demographic groups (i) were significantly more likely to face severe education disruptions from school cancellations at the onset of the pandemic, (ii) had more-limited access to remote-learning resources such as computers, and (iii) relied more heavily on schools to obtain access to these resources. Notably, these adverse effects severely disrupted children’s 2019-20 academic year but were mitigated at the start of the 2020-21 academic year.