The association of opening K–12 schools with the spread of COVID-19 in the United States: County-level panel data analysis

Victor Chernozhukov, Hiroyuki Kasahara and Paul Schrimpf
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Paul Schrimpf: c Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T1L4, Canada

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021, vol. 118, issue 42, e2103420118

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: K–12 school openings; in-person; hybrid; and remote; mask-wearing requirements for staff; foot traffic data; debiased estimator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Working Paper: The Association of Opening K-12 Schools with the Spread of COVID-19 in the United States: County-Level Panel Data Analysis (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nas:journl:v:118:y:2021:p:e2103420118

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