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

  1. Victor Chernozhukov
  2. Hiroyuki Kasahara
  3. Paul Schrimpf

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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.

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  1. Version published to 10.1073/pnas.2103420118
  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.02.20.21252131v2 on medRxiv
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    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

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  4. Version published to 10.1101/2021.02.20.21252131v1 on medRxiv