85% of Parents Worried About Sending Kids Back to School, Survey Shows
With safety issues still in the headlines, 55% of kids -- primarily in elementary and middle school -- are also scared and concerned.
We need policies that don’t place our children at such heightened risk.”
AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, August 9, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As kids head back to school this year, parents are facing one particularly big challenge: fear.— Sonali Rajan, Associate Professor at Columbia University.
On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos fatally shot 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, and headlines are still swirling about the police response that day, leaving parents and students a bit wary and insecure.
Though violent deaths and mass shootings at schools are rare and tragic, it’s hard not to worry about the worst-case scenario.
Compounding concerns, COVID-19 is once again surging in some parts of the country, Americans are facing 41-year inflationary highs and some store shelves are empty.
How are Americans prepping to send kids back to classrooms? DebtHammer.org set out to learn. We surveyed more than 850 Americans to learn about their plans. Here’s what we found.
Kids are afraid, too: Thanks to a combination of health and safety factors, more than 85% of parents said they’re at least slightly worried about school safety this year, with 33% saying they’re moderately worried and 27% saying they are very worried. Kids are worried, too: About 55% of students have expressed fears about going to school. Of those worried, 22% are in elementary school, 21% are in middle school and 11% are in high school.
A lot to fear: Of parents’ fears, the possibility of a mass shooting tops the list at 60% with COVID-19 second at 54%. Other fears include bullying (23%), fighting and other on-campus violence (39%) and fire (12%). Other fears cited (less than 1% each) include Monkeypox transmission and the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
Buying more: In an effort to assuage these fears, parents are taking on additional debt to buy items intended to try to keep their children safer at school, such as clear backpacks, hand sanitizer and face masks. It’s an expense many families can’t afford. More than 23% of those surveyed said they simply don’t have enough money to buy school supplies at all this year.
Read the full report at debthammer.org/back-to-school-survey.
DebtHammer is an industry leader in the business of fighting to get Americans out of debt.
Please email media@debthammer.org for more information, or if you would like to schedule a phone or video call with DebtHammer’s Founder and CEO, Jake Hill. Feel free to embed any of the visuals included in the report on your website, or to use or edit the raw files as needed. Full data sets are available upon request.
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