Table 3:

Impact of COVID-19 and Vaccination on School Experience

Theme	Illustrative Quote	Parents	Staff
Pandemic illuminated need for support of the social and emotional well-being of staff and students	Not just her, but a lot of her and her peers were struggling with their mental health coming back. I wish that they could kind of offer more counseling and things like that, and I know even virtually they’re trying to do the best they can, but even so it’s just kind of buckling under the weight of everything.	X
In-person learning much preferred over virtual learning	And that last year when he was virtual, my oldest son was the one who was having to take care of him during that time and to get him to interact and so forth, it was just causing issues. Being in school is important so students have a better chance of actually learning.	X	X
Concern of staff shortages impacting education	I think there’s been a lot of inconsistency with staffing and students in the buildings recently obviously with this latest surge, so that’s been challenging because try to get back into the routine, and then it’s in and out and not everybody’s there. The teachers in the building are doing what they can in the building. That’s the hard thing. You can’t be three places at once. And I just think that there’s a lot of people who are going to move on from education if things don’t get better.	X	X
Despite preference for in-person, school needs to make contingency plans for returning to virtual	This is not really being contained as we thought it was going to be. I think that we need to always be able to adjust from virtual to in-person. And so I definitely think if there was a way they could build in virtual days, maybe two days out of the week that would allow parents to plan better for daycare.	X	X
Concerns about vaccines due to side effects, development, or misinformation	It’s not enough known for me personally, about how the vaccines will affect people later down the line. I’m not against a vaccination. I’m against it right now and how soon it was. And it’s a little too soon for my liking. She got the vaccine and within 10 days she passed away… And I do know another person who was not a family member who also within several weeks of getting her vaccine, she had a heart condition and she passed away, not too longer after hers.	X	X
Unlikely to discuss with peers due to politicized nature of COVID and vaccinations	I kind of really don’t have those COVID conversations with other people, because for some odd reason it just never goes… There’s too many opinions about it and strong opinions about it.	X
More comfortable with in-person learning after students and staff were vaccinated	Once we got the vaccination, it didn’t seem as scary. Knowing that a lot more of my students have gotten it has been really comforting.	X	X