New Polco School Survey to Assess Family Preferences and Student Learning During COVID-19

Polco develops new school survey to help the education sector understand family schooling priorities during COVID pandemic

- By Brian Smith -

COVID-19 has thrown America’s school systems into a quandary over whether to implement in-person learning, virtual learning, or implement a hybrid model. 

School district administrators face a balancing act of learning, safety, educational needs, technological resources and the desires of parents and communities.

In response, Polco has developed a new “K-12 Return to School Parent-Guardian Survey” to help local administrators assess the needs and priorities of their communities for reopening learning this fall. The school survey also provides an equitable way for parents, teachers and the community to voice their concerns to school districts.

Parents Face Complex Challenges, Choices

“For parents of school aged kids, our conversations revolve around the challenges we face in trying to determine how to best educate our children in light of COVID-19,” said Cory Poris Plasch, Polco VP Strategic Development. “There is a need for information that is not just anecdotal, but data-driven to help local communities and their educators navigate this situation.” 

The school survey will provide useful information for districts that are still deciding how to reopen, as well as for districts who have already made a decision but want to plan how to best meet families’ needs.

“We ask a variety of questions about how each of these safety and family concerns are impacted by the decisions that the school district makes,” said Michelle Kobayashi, Polco Sr. Vice President of Innovation. “So this gives school boards and communities information on how to not only make the decision about how to resume school, but also what are the biggest needs so that they can help mitigate issues.”

School Survey Data Illuminates Big Picture and On-Ground Effects 

Kobayashi said surveys are often the best way to help administrators understand big picture values, but also on-the-ground effects parents and individual schools will bear. 

“We have questions on things like not having the right technology, not having parents at home to supervise, kids needing free and reduced lunch and kids having special needs where they need that personalized learning experience,” she said. “But we also have questions about opening the schools back up and what kind of safety measures have to be in place for parents to be confident such as disinfecting classrooms, reducing class sizes, and other things like concerns for buses.”

The K-12 Return to School Parent-Guardian Survey is free to deploy in your own community to gather insights into families’ school reopening preferences. Polco offers the ability to overlay school district boundary lines for results as part of its premium features.

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