MILFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - A poll of Massachusetts parents found many of them were unsatisfied with their children’s socialization during the pandemic and that 16 percent would consider having their children repeat a grade of school.
The study, commissioned by the Pioneer Institute and conducted by Emerson College, found 58 percent of parents would not support their children repeating and 26 percent were unsure.
Parents were also asked if they felt their children were able to get adequate socialization during the pandemic, and 43 percent said their kids got totally inadequate socialization while 26 percent said socialization was somewhat inadequate.
Milford parent Stephanie Cardoso said she would not want her son to repeat a grade, but wasn’t happy with the year of schooling he got.
“I definitely don’t think he got everything out of first grade that he could if they were in full time,” Cardoso said.
Laura Conrad-Laberinto, who has three children in the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District, was also against holding them back.
“I am not thinking about holding them back because all kids pretty much didn’t make the academic gains they would have made across the system,” Conrad-Laberinto said.
But Conrad-Laberinto said she was concerned about their socialization.
“Academics you can make up,” Conrad-Laberinto said. “The social and emotional and the isolation that kids are feeling is something that in the trauma of being isolated is something these kids are going to have to strive and work hard to make up those gains.”
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