Cargando…

COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020

Pre-emptive school closures are frontline community mitigation measures recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for implementation during severe pandemics. This study describes the spatiotemporal patterns of publicly announced school closures implemented in response to...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zviedrite, Nicole, Hodis, Jeffrey D., Jahan, Ferdous, Gao, Hongjiang, Uzicanin, Amra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8439454/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34520475
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248925
_version_ 1783752527858106368
author Zviedrite, Nicole
Hodis, Jeffrey D.
Jahan, Ferdous
Gao, Hongjiang
Uzicanin, Amra
author_facet Zviedrite, Nicole
Hodis, Jeffrey D.
Jahan, Ferdous
Gao, Hongjiang
Uzicanin, Amra
author_sort Zviedrite, Nicole
collection PubMed
description Pre-emptive school closures are frontline community mitigation measures recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for implementation during severe pandemics. This study describes the spatiotemporal patterns of publicly announced school closures implemented in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and assesses how public K-12 districts adjusted their methods of education delivery and provision of subsidized meals. During February 18–June 30, 2020, we used daily systematic media searches to identify publicly announced COVID-19–related school closures lasting ≥1 day in the United States (US). We also collected statewide school closure policies from state government websites. Data on distance learning and subsidized meal programs were collected from a stratified sample of 600 school districts. The first COVID-19–associated school closure occurred on February 27, 2020 in Washington state. By March 30, 2020, all but one US public school districts were closed, representing the first-ever nearly synchronous nationwide closure of public K-12 schools in the US. Approximately 100,000 public schools were closed for ≥8 weeks because of COVID-19, affecting >50 million K-12 students. Of 600 districts sampled, the vast majority offered distance learning (91.0%) and continued provision of subsidized meal programs (78.8%) during the closures. Despite the sudden and prolonged nature of COVID-19–associated school closures, schools demonstrated flexibility by implementing distance learning and alternate methods to continue subsidized meal programs.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8439454
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-84394542021-09-15 COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020 Zviedrite, Nicole Hodis, Jeffrey D. Jahan, Ferdous Gao, Hongjiang Uzicanin, Amra PLoS One Research Article Pre-emptive school closures are frontline community mitigation measures recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for implementation during severe pandemics. This study describes the spatiotemporal patterns of publicly announced school closures implemented in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and assesses how public K-12 districts adjusted their methods of education delivery and provision of subsidized meals. During February 18–June 30, 2020, we used daily systematic media searches to identify publicly announced COVID-19–related school closures lasting ≥1 day in the United States (US). We also collected statewide school closure policies from state government websites. Data on distance learning and subsidized meal programs were collected from a stratified sample of 600 school districts. The first COVID-19–associated school closure occurred on February 27, 2020 in Washington state. By March 30, 2020, all but one US public school districts were closed, representing the first-ever nearly synchronous nationwide closure of public K-12 schools in the US. Approximately 100,000 public schools were closed for ≥8 weeks because of COVID-19, affecting >50 million K-12 students. Of 600 districts sampled, the vast majority offered distance learning (91.0%) and continued provision of subsidized meal programs (78.8%) during the closures. Despite the sudden and prolonged nature of COVID-19–associated school closures, schools demonstrated flexibility by implementing distance learning and alternate methods to continue subsidized meal programs. Public Library of Science 2021-09-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8439454/ /pubmed/34520475 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248925 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zviedrite, Nicole
Hodis, Jeffrey D.
Jahan, Ferdous
Gao, Hongjiang
Uzicanin, Amra
COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020
title COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020
title_full COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020
title_fullStr COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020
title_short COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020
title_sort covid-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, united states, february 18–june 30, 2020
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8439454/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34520475
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248925
work_keys_str_mv AT zviedritenicole covid19associatedschoolclosuresandrelatedeffortstosustaineducationandsubsidizedmealprogramsunitedstatesfebruary18june302020
AT hodisjeffreyd covid19associatedschoolclosuresandrelatedeffortstosustaineducationandsubsidizedmealprogramsunitedstatesfebruary18june302020
AT jahanferdous covid19associatedschoolclosuresandrelatedeffortstosustaineducationandsubsidizedmealprogramsunitedstatesfebruary18june302020
AT gaohongjiang covid19associatedschoolclosuresandrelatedeffortstosustaineducationandsubsidizedmealprogramsunitedstatesfebruary18june302020
AT uzicaninamra covid19associatedschoolclosuresandrelatedeffortstosustaineducationandsubsidizedmealprogramsunitedstatesfebruary18june302020