It’s been two full school years since the pandemic started, and with districts forced to quickly close, educators have faced a universal concern over students and learning loss. But as local schools played catch up, a more urgent problem emerged.

"We heard on Friday and brought the kids and teachers in on Sunday," said Williamsville Superintendent Tip Reedy. "They grabbed their stuff and we didn't have school again."

It was a scramble for students and staff at Williamsville school district as the Coronavirus pandemic shut down schools in March 2020.

"Nobody could see on the radar what was going to happen two years ago," Reedy said. "It was an interesting time and our community rallied together."

While Williamsville returned to in-person learning just months after the shutdown, Springfield students in District 186 stayed fully remote or eventually went to hybrid learning.

"I think it hit our students in the transition years the most," said District 186 Superintendent Jennifer Gill. "Those that were used to elementary school, that missed their 6th grade year and then had to come back into 7th grade. That was a challenge."

As District 186 returned to school in person, teachers found that academics wasn’t the only issue.

"I do think the social emotional aspect was something that we had not thought about as deeply," Gill said. "We didn't realize the difference that being home for an entire year, then coming back into school readiness mode."

It was a similar trend at Williamsville where teachers found that social connection was missed.

"Teachers in their classrooms, they're just not always teaching reading, writing and arithmetic," Reedy said. "They are teaching everything, the whole child. The life skills, the relationships, communication."

Now two years later, as students get back on track with learning, it’s the peer-to-peer interaction making a difference in the classroom. While they didn’t change the curriculum, both districts say they looked at the areas of weakness and changed the pacing to allow students to get caught back up to speed on academics. Many school districts have also introduced special lessons to address social/emotional learning.