Resources for Parents During COVID-19 School Disruption

Parents are facing new and growing challenges as schools close or shift to online learning platforms. Below is a list of resources for parents that covers anxiety, mental health, educational options, health education, support for undocumented families, and more.

Have you seen a particularly helpful resource? Send us a note at [email protected], and we’ll continue adding to this list.

Soothing Anxiety

• This resource from Common Sense Media was written for educators but can be helpful for caregivers who need to reduce their children’s anxiety with tips on news literacy, media balance, and healthy communication.
• The Huffington Post shares many resources about how to reassure your kids during Coronavirus.

Mental Health Resources

• The California chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness has a resource page that includes Advice For Those With Mental Health Conditions, links for COVID-19 Information and Updates, Information on Social Distancing and Events/Gatherings, and other Mental Health Tips and Resources.
• Partners in Health shares ten mental health tips specific to social distancing.
• Commonsense Media created a blog post with several ideas on how to help your families destress during self-quarantine or shelter-in-place.
• Greater Good Magazine put together a list of resources for stress and anxiety, fostering connection, for parents, for educators, and more.

Physical Health Resources

• The YMCA provides free videos on its website and includes bootcamp, yoga, weightlifting, tai chi, and more.

Supporting Education for Middle and High School Students

• We are Teachers shares a list of virtual author readings and activities for children and young adults. The list is organized by age group with middle school, high-school-aged, and young adult listings further down the list.
• Amazon made their Audible books free while schools are closed. Young people can stream a collection of stories, including titles across six different languages.
• KQED has a list of online learning resources.
• Transcend has a lengthy list of resources for educators that can be helpful for caregivers that are working to continue education for the children in their life.
• The New York Times offers a dozen new writing prompts each week, all based on Times articles, photographs, illustrations, videos, and graphs, about a wide array of issues, including internet memes, climate change, the #MeToo movement, racism, the 2020 election, and healthy habits. All of these activities are completely free for everyone.
• There is a LENGTHY list of “Education Companies Offering Free Subscriptions due to School Closings” that is being continually updated. If you haven’t seen it already, check it out.
• TED-Ed is TED’s youth and education initiative. There are links and resources for students, educators, and parents.

Undocumented Californians

• California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CIYJA) compiled a great list of multi-lingual resources available for undocumented Californians. We also want to highlight this note, “we want to remind undocumented people that they still qualify for emergency Medi-Cal. This means that should a loved one (specifically immunodeficient individuals such as our elders or loved ones with diabetes) is experiencing flu-like symptoms, you should not hesitate to get them to get medical assistance in California!”

Health Education

• Ms. Hall, a health teacher at Balboa High School in San Francisco Unified School District, created a website with health information, classroom activities, optional activities, and SF-specific links.

Bay Area-specific

• The Freedom Community Clinic has organized a living document with resources in the Bay Area during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s informative and well-organized.
• For parents in San Francisco, SFUSD has 19 sites open from 9-10am to pick-up breakfast, lunch, supper, fresh fruit, vegetables, and milk to take home. Details are here:
• This link from the city of San Francisco answers a lot of common questions during this time.