Just two weeks into the new school year, Jacquelyn Allsopp, a New Jersey mother of three, was considering unenrolling her 5-year-old daughter from kindergarten. “So much of kindergarten is learning through play, socialization,” Allsopp told Katie Reilly of Time magazine in September. “If you’re not learning that, how is this productive?”

Allsopp isn’t alone in her concerns. Parents of kindergarten-age children have had to weigh the health risks of in-person schooling (if it’s an option in their district) or assist with online learning amid other responsibilities. And as a result, more parents are choosing a third option: hold their 5-year-olds back.

New data show 17 percent of parents are waiting to enroll their children in kindergarten during the pandemic, nearly triple the amount who waited to enroll in 2010. These increases have occurred across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, whereas historically, white and high-income families have been more likely to wait to enroll their children in kindergarten.

Kindergarten has become the new first grade, with teachers spending more time on literacy and math. Full-day kindergarten, now the norm in most districts, has been shown to address early achievement disparities.

But remote learning offers a different experience altogether. Some parents feel it’s insufficient, and others, who are facing uncertain or irregular working conditions themselves, could feel as if managing their children’s remote schooling is too much. Parents who are unemployed or laid off and those who are temporarily out of work or furloughed have withdrawn kindergartners at higher rates than parents working full time. And parents with incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, who generally redshirt their children at lower rates, are missing kindergarten at the same rate as parents with higher incomes.

Read the full article about missing kindergarten during COVID-19 by Erica Greenberg and Grace Luetmer at Urban Institute.