Two Sanford School professors help illuminate inequities in education during COVID-19 by contributing to public policy briefs

The Society for Research in Child Development has just published the latest volume of their "Statement of the Evidence" briefs. According to their website, the latest briefs examine the impact of systemic racism and the potential exacerbating effects of COVID-19 on racial-ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ children and youth.

Contributors to this year’s briefs are ASU associate professors Monica Tsethlikai and Eleanor Seaton from the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics.

Tsethlikai, first author on the brief "Considerations for American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Youth in the Era of COVID-19" was excited for the opportunity to be involved in the brief.

“It was an honor to be included as I have felt relatively powerless to do much to help relatives, friends, and tribal communities during this time when so many have been devastated by COVID-19,” she said. “By working on the brief, it gave me the opportunity to advocate for American Indian and Alaska Native children who are frequently forgotten in the national discourse.”

Seaton, an author on the "Considerations for Black Children and Youth in the Era of COVID-19" brief, stresses that racism and the COVID-19 pandemic go hand in hand, as evidenced by these statements from the Black caucus: “Structural racism is the preexisting condition affording COVID-19 the opportunity to devastate the Black American community. Black Americans are contracting and dying from COVID-19 at rates that far exceed other racial and ethnic groups.”