PRIMARY DATA (SECONDARY DATA)
1. Approximately nine out of ten US parents with K-12 children at home (93 percent)
reported that their children had received some online instruction since the coronavirus
outbreak began in February 2020, and 30 percent of these parents said that it was
extremely or somewhat difficult to assist their children in using technology or the internet
as an educational tool since the coronavirus outbreak began in February 2020.
There were gaps for particular types of parents. For example, parents with lower and medium
incomes (36 percent and 29 percent, respectively) were more likely to indicate that this was
extremely or somewhat challenging than parents with higher incomes (18 percent).
This was also a problem for parents in specific towns — 39% of rural people and 33% of urban
residents reported experiencing some difficulty, compared to 23% of suburban residents.
2. Approximately a third of parents with children whose schools were closed during the
pandemic (34%) reported that their child encountered at least one technological
impediment to completing their homework during that period. The Center surveyed
parents of K-12 students whose schools had closed at some time in April 2021 to
determine whether their children had encountered three technology-related challenges.
Around a quarter of parents (27%) reported that their children were required to complete
schoolwork on a cellphone, 16 percent said that their child was unable to complete
schoolwork due to a lack of computer access at home. Another 14 percent reported that
their child was required to complete schoolwork using public Wi-Fi due to a lack of a
reliable connection at home.
3. Parents with lower incomes who had their children's schools closed due to COVID-19
were more likely to report that their children encountered technological barriers when
learning at home. Nearly half of these parents (46%) said that their kids faced at least one
of the three barriers to learning mentioned in the poll, compared to 31% of middleincome parents and 18% of upper-income parents.
Of the three barriers mentioned in the survey, parents with lower incomes were most
likely to report that their child must complete schoolwork on a cellphone (37 percent ).
Around a quarter of respondents said that their child could not do schoolwork due to a
lack of computer access at home (25%) or that they were forced to utilize public Wi-Fi
due to a lack of a dependable internet connection at home (23 percent ).
According to a Center poll performed in April 2020, 59% of parents with lower incomes
who had children enrolled in remote learning at the time indicated that their children will
very indeed experience at least one of the difficulties outlined in the 2021 study.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/10/01/what-we-know-about-online-learning-andthe-homework-gap-amid-the-pandemic/