NOTE: This blog was written by Gabriel Kilwein, one of LCYC’s 2025 Summer Fellows.
One of the things I appreciate the most about LCYC is that team members are encouraged to bring our entire selves to this work. Our past experiences, passions, and memories shaped how and why we care so deeply about youth. For me, that journey winds through the classrooms of Seattle as an educator. First, at the Rainier Beach Community Center, then at Rainier Beach High School, and later at a Head Start preschool. These experiences shaped my commitment to youth and showed me how environments can deeply affect adolescent development.
Disconnected and Disengaged
School closures during COVID disrupted learning, severed relationships, cut off access to support networks, and made learning a lonely and passive experience. Students who already felt the system wasn’t built for them now had even less to hold on to. Screens couldn’t replace the need for socialization, and access to critical support services was halted.
Although I had not worked as an educator before the pandemic, the consensus among teachers was clear: the students before the pandemic were not the same students after the pandemic. Teachers complained of reduced attention spans, reduced classroom engagement, and an increase in antisocial behavior. We were witnessing a fundamental shift in how students related to school, to each other, and themselves. Curriculum that students spent a year and a half learning didn’t stick. These gaps in knowledge reflect the loss of continuity, context, and connection we all suffered through during the pandemic. There was a loss of trust all around and it was on all of us to rebuild it, especially with young people.
After the pandemic, it became clear that educators could no longer treat schools as just a place to study. School could serve a vital role as a place where students could build relationships, access food and care, and experience a sense of belonging. When the pandemic happened, it disrupted the connections that helped young people feel safe, seen, and supported. Trust was lost on all sides, between students and schools, youth and adults, and between peers. It became a collective responsibility to rebuild that trust. All of us had a role to play in reshaping connections in the aftermath. Educators adapted and acknowledged that students needed a space to reconnect. Even just spending 20 minutes playing UNO allowed us to build community together – something that was nearly impossible to through online learning. These informal interactions allowed me to better understand my students, their backgrounds, and the individual supports they needed to thrive.
Inequities Grew Wider
The pandemic increased the existing inequities in education. As research from Yale shows, ninth graders in the poorest U.S. neighborhoods experienced a 0.5 GPA drop, while wealthier students had no learning loss (and in some cases, even improved slightly). Just one year of school closure reduces post-educational earnings by 25% for students in low-income communities.[i]
These inequities also extend to the students’ food security. The School Nutrition Association held a survey where 1,894 school districts responded. 95% of these school districts provided emergency meal assistance to students during the pandemic. Still, on average, these school districts reported an 80.1% drop in the number of meals provided.[ii] For many students, school meals are the most consistent source of nutrition. Food is such a stabilizing force in students’ daily lives; without it, students can’t fully engage in learning
What Young People Continue to Need After the Pandemic
Whether it be comforting a preschooler through when they’re having big emotions or checking in with a high schooler trying to juggle classes, finances, and sports, I have seen what young people continue to need the most (and what was most lacking during the pandemic): consistency, empathy, and adults who will show up for them. These are not just “nice to haves,” they are a necessity for every youth.
At LCYC, I’ve carried those lessons with me. We’re not just legal representatives. We’re sometimes the first stable adult presence a young person has had in their life. My experiences in the classroom have made me more aware of the traumas youth carry with them into every interaction. Every intake, every conversation, every moment of advocacy is a chance to model the trust and stability young people deserve. The law can’t undo a pandemic, but we can use it creatively to meet youth where they are now.
[i] Mike Cummings, COVID School Closures Most Harm Students from Poorest Neighborhoods, YaleNews (Jan 5, 2021), https://news.yale.edu/2021/01/05/covid-school-closures-most-harm-students-poorest-neighborhoods
[ii] School Nutrition Association, Impact of Covid-19 on School Nutrition Programs: Part 2 (2020), https://schoolnutrition.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/COVID-19-Impact-on-School-Nutriction-Programs-Part2.pdf