Many students will be starting school for the first time this year and many will do so without the benefit of kindergarten or face-to-face learning. What special needs will our youngest students bring into the classroom, and what do we need to know to help them adjust?

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Faige Meller taught for 38 years at the same school “The Center For Early Education” and that’s where she is a substitute teacher. She began teaching in 1977 in the preschool. In 1991 she became one of the kindergarten teachers. She taught kindergarten until retired in June 2015. She started subbing in 2016 and subbed in Toddlers, 3 and 4-year-old program, kindergarten, 1st and 2nd. She did a three-and-a-half-month sub position for a kindergarten teacher from January till April 17th — which included in the classroom and then remote learning.

Christina Cipriano, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center and Director of Research at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI). Dr. Cipriano’s research focuses on the systematic examination of social and emotional learning (SEL) to promote pathways to optimal developmental outcomes for the traditionally marginalized student and teacher populations.

Madeline Will is a reporter for Education Week who covers the teaching profession. Before joining Education Week in 2016, she was the publications fellow for the Student Press Law Center. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014.