By Serving the Whole Family, Christopher House Made Distance Learning Work for All Kids

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Like other schools across the country, we at Christopher House physically closed our doors in mid-March due to COVID-19, which was an abrupt and at times hectic transition as we provided our scholars with much-needed Chromebooks, personalized online learning plans and access to free home internet.  

At the end of the school year, an impressive 91% of our scholars had fully participated in our remote learning programming. In hindsight, there was a less visible piece of our strategy that proved pivotal to our success during the pandemic: our year-round continuum-of-care model. 

This approach is unique as we serve the entire family—not just our scholars or during the school day. Our model centers in good part around our family advocates, who also serve as year-round case workers. Within days of our shutdown, they assessed which families were most in need and provided support ranging from mental health counseling to emergency financial aid.

Most of our scholars start with us at birth and stay through high school. They are primarily from Latinx communities that have been historically underinvested. In addition to facing many challenges that come with living on the edge of poverty, they have also been disproportionately affected by COVID-19—the Latinx community has the highest percentage of cases for any demographic in Illinois. 

So if we want to set our scholars up for success, having a supportive learning environment at school is not enough. We must also lift up their families along the way to ensure we build a stable and nurturing environment at home. And while the pandemic created new challenges, we were able to quickly adjust our delivery of family services as well as our curriculum. 

We created the Thrive Family Fund to address unexpected COVID-19-related expenses at home like rent and utilities, providing $26,000 in rental assistance to dozens of families. We implemented weekly diaper pickup times and enlisted our licensed clinical social workers to offer anxiety-ridden parents support on a daily basis. Teachers held office hours online, giving daily access to both parents and students. We were even able to continue providing doula services to parents, albeit virtually, but no less critical. 

The pandemic was a real-world testament to our mission: By continuing to serve the entire family, we set our scholars on a winning path. Unfortunately, our success at virtual learning also exposed the deep inequities in the educational system and the need for other school communities to consider our approach.  

This fall, as we continue to deploy our continuum-of-care strategies, we know our scholars will thrive. This fall, we have experienced a 95% participation rate with online learning, and, as always, we’ll be continue to be there for our families long after the end of the school day to help build an environment at home where everyone can succeed.

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Krissy Novy

Krissy has served schools in multiple Chicago neighborhoods over the past 15 years as a teacher, literacy coach and Resident Principal and now Principal. As an instructional leader serving culturally and linguistically diverse student populations, she became a leader in creating curriculum and assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards at the district level.As a literacy coach, she served a pivotal role in increasing student achievement by coaching teachers, implementing balanced literacy, and working with families to create a culture of high expectations and a love of reading and learning. Krissy has created strong leadership teams at two schools that used data to develop and monitor student progress, resulting in outstanding student growth and more invested staff. She also developed literacy outreach programs at multiple schools to support and invest families in their children’s education. Krissy holds a B.A. in Journalism from Indiana University, a M.A. in Teaching fromDominican University, a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from National Louis University and she earned her school leadership licensure from DePaul University. Krissy achieved National Board Certification in 2009. Now in her sixth year as principal of Christopher House Elementary School, Krissy is proud to be leading the development of an outstanding whole-child focused school that prepares children for success and happiness in life.
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