Over the last few months, New York City’s schools shifted the way they educate their 1.2 million students in order to protect the health and safety students, faculty and staff during the coronavirus pandemic. Despite being one of the largest cities in the U.S., and outspending many other cities around the nation, there are many students without the necessary resources to maintain their education. Covid-19 lead to school closures, and the subsequent proliferation of virtual learning as students of all ages were forced into online education. Unfortunately, many students do not have the resources to carry on with virtual education during the Covid-19 related shut down. These circumstances have disproportionately impacted students of color and lower-income students. Additionally, New York is home to some of the largest, most segregated schools in the nation, which has contributed to inequitable schooling as under-resourced schools struggle to overcome personnel and technological barriers to provide a virtual lesson to students. Thus, Covid-19 has created challenging obstacles for students of color and low-income communities hoping to continue to receive a formal education during the pandemic.

The discovery of Coronavirus in New York City forced schools to abruptly shut down in March 2020. Addressing the city during a COVID -19 briefing, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered schools to close: “New York City’s public school system, the nation’s largest, will begin shutting down this week… The city’s vast system of 1,800 schools.” Following this decision there was thousands of students left without access to education and uncertainty of whether school would resume. The decision to close impacted not only students, but also a larger scale of people. “The closures will alter the lives and routines of 1.1 million children, 75,000 teachers and well over 1 million parents” said de Blasio.

The effect of schools closing devastated students and their families, as well as school faculty and staff. Families that were hit the hardest were those from lower income neighborhoods. The pandemic left them questioning how they would get the resources they need for their children’s education. “For low-income parents of students who have special needs without access to resources outside of schools, questions abound about how to get the help they need.” Furthermore, families with fewer resources depend on the help and aid from schools to survive, and thus school closures made life far more challenging and difficult for New York’s vulnerable families.

Unequal access to resources has been an issue among students in the city long before coronavirus ever hit the city. For decades the education of students-of-color educational has been precarious. Covid-19 has caused these same groups of students, who were already having a hard time making it through the school system, to have an even greater challenge accessing quality education. “Racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps will most likely widen because of disparities in access to computers, home internet connections and direct instruction from teachers.” Due to schools shutting down and shifting to virtual learning, students and guardians are asked to provide resources that many low-income families cannot afford. For example, Internet and access to a device may not be attainable for low-income families thereby placing students at a disadvantage. If students do not have a device what good is internet? If there’s not internet what good is a device? These are some of the many obstacles that families of low income are facing after the shutdown of schools and following a new school year.

The term, “Educational disadvantage” refers to the inequality within an educational institution for one student experienced compared to their peers. The term highlights the inevitable circumstances that many students are facing as Covid-19 changes the way in which schools educate students. The truth is low-income families are already at a disadvantage when it comes to students receiving an education. Covid-19’s proliferation has exposed the gaps between the quality of education given to high-income versus low-income students. School districts are aware of some of the major new obstacles families are now facing, and have now created ways to help. “Many schools are making efforts to distribute digital devices to students who do not have their own at home.” This comes off as a great way to better serve and protect low income students in their education. Although schools are taking efforts to better fight against these new obstacles the department of education is certainly holding a lot of the possible solutions to better serve specific groups of students.

Juan Diaz Rodriguez, an upper senior at Hunter College majoring in Sociology with a minor in Public Policy. Has been interning for two years with Petey Greene a nonprofit origination that seeks to help provide incarcerated population assistance in a pathway towards a GED. While being the oldest of three, first-generation in America life wasn’t all that straight forward but with trial and error, he’s persevered and continues to grow. He is devoted to finding an occupation where he can apply the education and skills towards making a positive difference in the life of others. He is interested in pursuing an MSW.