CHARLOTTE, N.C. — School districts across North Carolina are gearing up for a high-stakes summer, as programs will attempt to gain back some of the unprecedented COVID-19 learning loss.
“It’s going to be huge,” Andrew Houlihan, the superintendent of Union County Schools, said.
Union County currently has more than 3,000 students enrolled in their summer learning recovery program that the school system is calling “summer camp."
The program will run for six weeks, and offer classes, enrichments and activities at 20 sites for any family that wants to participate.
Gov. Roy Cooper signed a law earlier this year mandating every school system offer a minimum of 30 days of summer learning opportunities to try to close the seismic gaps that widened during the pandemic.
Roughly one out of every five students in North Carolina is at risk of not passing their current grade level, according to a report to the Department of Public Instruction earlier this year.
In Union County last fall, failing grades increased across every demographic, Houlihan said.
“As a superintendent and also as a parent, I think all of our children in some way have been affected by the pandemic,” Houlihan said.
More than 32,000 of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' 141,000 students have enrolled in its summer program, which amounts to close to 25%. In Union County, where participation is closer to 10-15%, Houlihan is urging more families to consider enrolling.
The summer learning program is the next step in what Houlihan believes will be a concerted effort over the next couple of years to recoup the losses students suffered.
“It can’t just stop from this summer,” Houlihan said. “This is going to have to be a multi-year effort. I would anticipate additional summer camp offerings like this a year from now maybe two years from now. It’s going to take that amount of time to get back to where we were in 2018-2019.”
Despite the increase in need, staffing remains a challenge for the summer camp program, Houlihan said. According to a UCPS spokesperson, the district will have sufficient teachers to assist the students that are most at risk of failure, or who suffered the most learning loss, but they are still trying to find more teachers, nurses, operations and support staff for the remaining students.
Contact Tanya Mendis at tmendis@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.