The association of opening K–12 schools with the spread of COVID-19 in the United States: County-level panel data analysis
Name
pnas.2103420118.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.11 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
fffb0fa2afc301a655fc982d5dcb00a0
Author(s)
Chernozhukov, Victor
Kasahara, Hiroyuki
Schrimpf, Paul
Date Issued
2021
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Chernozhukov, Victor, Kasahara, Hiroyuki and Schrimpf, Paul. 2021. "The association of opening K–12 schools with the spread of COVID-19 in the United States: County-level panel data analysis." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118 (42).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Significance
This paper examines whether the opening of K–12 schools may lead to the spread of COVID-19. Analyzing how an increase of COVID-19 cases is related to the timing of opening K–12 schools in the United States, we find that counties that opened K–12 schools with in-person learning experienced an increase in the growth rate of cases by 5 percentage points on average, controlling for a variety of policies, past infection rates, and other factors. This association of K–12 school visits with case growth is stronger when mask wearing is not mandated for staff at school. These findings support policies that promote masking and other precautionary measures at schools and giving vaccine priority to education workers.
This paper examines whether the opening of K–12 schools may lead to the spread of COVID-19. Analyzing how an increase of COVID-19 cases is related to the timing of opening K–12 schools in the United States, we find that counties that opened K–12 schools with in-person learning experienced an increase in the growth rate of cases by 5 percentage points on average, controlling for a variety of policies, past infection rates, and other factors. This association of K–12 school visits with case growth is stronger when mask wearing is not mandated for staff at school. These findings support policies that promote masking and other precautionary measures at schools and giving vaccine priority to education workers.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Statistics and Data Science Center (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2103420118
