Every Child Valued (ECV) Takes on Two-Year Fight Against Covid-19
While the 2020-2021 school year brought significant individual and systemic barriers to student attendance and engagement, ECV coaches and parents coordinated with the Lawrence Township Public Schools to create and deliver practical ways to help address the challenges to academic and Social and Emotional learning. The introduction of a Learning Pod was foremost among these, providing a safe and supportive space for students to engage with their online classrooms and to receive individualized instruction and support. Parents and coaches alike indicated that close ECV staff and family relationships, facilitated by the close proximity of programming to student homes, served as natural connection points for ECV staff to deliver both academic and Social and Emotional Learning support.
Close mutual collaboration with the Lawrence Township Public Schools allowed ECV to expand the breadth and impact of their services to include technical support, twice-daily academic enrichment from the ECV coaches, rapid follow-up with students who were absent or delinquent in their assignments, and instruction targeted to areas where students needed it most. While no set of measures could be far-reaching enough to completely mitigate the learning challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, those put in place by ECV were critical to addressing these challenges for children residing in Eggerts Crossing Village, the low-to-moderate income housing development where ECV is headquartered, and for other children in the community that were at risk for disengaging from school.