Where are America's Struggling Students?


School Districts Most In Need of Educational Intervention to Catch Students up in a Post-Pandemic Learning Environment

The Urban Institute houses a dataset, "Household Conditions by Geographic School District". Which details, by school district, percentages of households experiencing different conditions that may affect remote learning. Below is a series of charts with that data broken up by county (parish, borough).

The counties with the highest rates of these conditions likely have many students who struggled educationally during the COVID-19 pandemic and likely require educational intervention and support to get back on track.


Households with Linguistically Isolated Children

Linguistic Isolation is a term for limited English speaking households. Students in these households who have difficulty understanding remote instruction would likely not be able to overcome that difficulty with the help of non-English speaking adults in the home.


The most affected counties are:

Fresno County, CA - 66%
Harris County, TX - 34%
El Paso County, TX - 31%
Zapata County, TX - 31%
La Paz County, AZ - 30%


Children with Disabilities

Children with disabilities already experience educational setbacks in in-person learning environments. With the implementation of remote learning, these children likely no longer have access to the resources provided in an in-person school setting.


The most affected counties are:

Adams County, WA - 50%
Monterey County, CA - 50%
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK - 20%


Households with No Computer or Internet Access

Children who do not have access to a computer or the internet at home will have had an incredibly difficult time with remote-learning. Even for school districts who were able to provide these resources to students in need, these students likely still lacked the computer literacy skills required to perform well in a remote-learning environment.


The most affected counties are:

Liberty County, MT - 100%
Orange County, NY - 88%
Telfair County, GA - 79%
Taos County, NM - 76%
La Paz County, AZ - 72%
Victoria County, TX - 71%


Households with Crowded Conditions

Children living in crowded households will not have had the space or ability to focus in remote education. This likely greatly impacted their ability to learn effectively.


The most affected counties are:

Mohave County, AZ - 50%
Nome Borough, AK - 40%
Orange County, NY - 35%


Households with Vulnerable Jobs

Vulnerable jobs are those that pay low wages and do not provide benefits. Children living in households reliant on vulnerable jobs will have experienced additional uncertainty and/or scarcity during the COVID-19 pandemic.


The most affected counties are:

Monterey County, CA - 67%
Colfax County, NM - 56%
Richland County, SC - 55%
Franklin County, ME - 53%
Gallatin County, MT - 53%
Presidio County, TX - 53%
Grand County, UT - 53%
San Juan County, UT - 53%


Single Parent Households

Single parents likely had less time to help their children with remote learning than parents in dual-parent households who could share that task.


The most affected counties are:

Somerset County, ME - 100%
Catron County, NM - 100%
Jefferson County, OR - 100%
Adams County, WA - 100%
Jefferson County, MS - 96%
La Paz County, AZ - 83%
Clay County, GA - 82%


Households Living in Poverty

Poverty is a large indicator of overall disadvantage that can affect educational success. Children living in poverty may be without the resources at home to facilitate remote learning and may also experience instability, such as food insecurity, as a result of not attending school in person. These factors can severely limit a child's ability to learn effectively.


The most affected counties are:

Bullock County, AL - 65%
East Carroll Parish, LA - 64%
Washington County, MS - 54%
Uvalde County, TX - 52%
La Paz County, AZ - 51%
Orange County, NY - 50%

Of all the counties called out above, there are three called out in multiple risk categories.

Monterey County, California
50% Children with Disabilities
67% Households with Vulnerable Jobs

Orange County, New York
88% Households with No Computer or Internet Access
35% Households with Crowded conditions
50% Households in Poverty

La Paz County, Arizona
30% Linguistically Isolated Households
72% Households with No Computer or Internet Access
83% Single Parent Households
51% Households in Poverty


If you live in one of these three counties, any of the counties highlighted in the charts above, or a state that is home to one of those counties? If so, please consider contacting your representatives to ask for additional resources for your local school district(s) in need.

An easy way to contact your reps is by using Democracy.io's platform.