Abstract
The contact restrictions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic massively limited the educational participation of children and adolescents, both in day care centers and in schools. During phases of lockdown, contact with friends and early child care was often severed, especially for young children. The quality of interactions between staff and children as well as among the children themselves, suffered from the many protective measures, the high fluctuation of children present and the shortage of staff. Pandemic-related group closures in day care centers more severely affected facilities with a high proportion of children from socially disadvantaged households, and the proportion of children with higher support needs increased. Schools and families were also confronted with the challenges of insufficient digitalization. Remote and digital lessons more often reached older and higher performing students from more socially advantaged families. Learning time in distance learning was at times on average halved and decreased especially when there was only little contact with teachers and for low-performing students. National as well as international trend data point to substantial learning gaps, especially among children from socially disadvantaged families with low cultural capital and from immigrant families, with the often less favorable learning conditions and limited support options in these families being the decisive factor. In addition, options for extracurricular activities outside of schools were absent in the lockdown. In the post-COVID education strategy greater emphasis should be placed on the integrated well-being of children and adolescents in order to rectify the constraints and stresses they experienced.