Poster #64 - Investing in Student Success: COVID-19 Stimulus Checks and Attendance, Behavioral, and Academic Outcomes of Multilingual Learners

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

Direct cash transfers have been found to be correlated with modest increases in academic achievement and overall attainment (Aizer et al., 2016) (Miller et al., 2015), suggesting that they may enable families to invest in children’s education as basic needs are met (Gennetian et al., 2024). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans and most documented immigrants with individual incomes under $75,000 were eligible for three direct cash transfers intended to alleviate the economic fallout of the pandemic. Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) of 2020, eligible adults received $1,200 with an additional $500 per dependent child. They later received $600 individually and per dependent child through the COVID-Related Tax Relief Act of 2020 and $1,400 individually and per dependent through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. These three measures added up, providing a cash influx of $11,400 for a family of four with two dependent children from 2020-2021. However, not all U.S. residents were eligible.

U.S. residents without social security numbers, including undocumented immigrants, were excluded from national economic relief policies during the pandemic. Additionally, mixed-status families, in which at least one family member is undocumented, were excluded from accessing both CARES Act and COVID-Related Tax Relief Act funds. To address this issue, some states like California and New York provided supplemental cash transfers to residents without social security numbers. Other states, like Texas and Florida, did not. Since an estimated 23% of immigrants in the United States were undocumented as of 2022 (Krogstad & Manuel, 2024), this disparity in state-level policies may have contributed to different academic, attendance, and behavioral outcomes among multilingual learner (MLL) students in these states as families faced the economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic with or without the benefit of cash assistance. 

While test results from before, during, and after the pandemic point to diminished academic performance among MLL students and a widening disparity between the academic performance of students who are classified as MLL and non-MLL (Poole & Sahakyan, 2024), causality for these results has yet to be established. This paper addresses a gap in the literature by exploring the extent to which disparities in access to financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic can explain differences in academic performance among MLL students. 

By using site, district, and state-level academic, attendance, and disciplinary data from California, Florida, Texas, and New York, I seek to determine 1) if expanded access to stimulus checks effected graduation rates among MLL students and 2) if expanded access to stimulus checks effected test scores, attendance rates, and rates of behavioral incidences. California and Texas and Florida and New York are approximately matched by total population and demographic factors. As this project progresses, I plan to add more pairs of approximately matched states to the treatment and control group, ultimately employing a difference-in-difference design to examine the extent to which expanding access to pandemic stimulus funds to people without SSNs impacted the academic, attendance, and disciplinary outcomes of MLL learners in different states.

Author

• Katherine Braham Pedersen, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author