Pandemic home schooling puts American parents into debt: report

A significant proportion of Americans whose children are attending classes from home due to COVID-19 are going into debt to pay for food, school supplies, a survey released on Tuesday found.



The US is grappling with the world's worst coronavirus outbreak and many school districts have shifted classes at least partially online to prevent transmission of the coronavirus as students resume their studies following the summer break.

The report from personal finance company Credit Karma found 33 percent of more than 1,000 parents surveyed in July whose children would be at home at least part of the time don't feel financially prepared for extra expenses associated with their children learning at home. A quarter have already gone into debt to pay for the unexpected costs, while 12 percent say they expect to do so by the end of 2020.

Of those who went into debt, 38 percent said it was due to having "to provide learning supplies that I typically rely on my kid[s]' school to provide, such as textbooks, pens, notebooks, learning software or laptops/tablets," according to the survey. Another 32 percent said they "had no option other than going into debt to provide school supplies," while 27 percent said they "now have to pay for breakfast and lunch for my kid[s], which their school usually provides."

That was despite 67 percent of all survey respondents saying they had received or expected to get some form of assistance from school districts. Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of working parent respondents said they felt they had to compromise their careers.