Skip to content
Connect
Stories

Most us residents don’t think it’s safe for k-12 schools to reopen for in-person learning, new national survey finds

People in this story

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Most U.S. residents agree that safety conditions just aren’t there yet for school-age children to return to the classroom because of COVID-19, but the consensus begins to splinter among racial, income and political groups, according to new results from a national survey from Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern.

Researchers interviewed roughly 19,000 adults in July and found that only 31 percent of them believe that sending students K-12 back to school was either “very safe” (10 percent) or “somewhat safe” (21 percent). 

Not all adults surveyed had children, but for those who do, the findings discovered relatively minor gaps between parents who live with only young children in the household (ages 0-5) and parents with preteen (age 6-12) or teenage (age 13-17) children, though parents who live with children in the youngest age group were a bit less likely to consider schools safe.

“The implication is that parents who live with children are not differentiating their attitudes based on whether the kids are in elementary, middle, or high school, despite emerging research suggesting that the risks associated with COVID-19 may vary for children at different ages,” researchers wrote.

Continue reading at News@Northeastern.

More Stories

Alessandro Vespignani working at his desk

Northeastern receives $17.5 million from CDC to launch infectious disease prediction center

09.19.2023
US citizens Siamak Namazi (C-with glasses) and Morad Tahbaz are greeted upon their arrival at the Doha International Airport in Doha on September 18, 2023.

Ransom payment or effective negotiating? How the US freed five captive Americans in Iran

09.19.2023
Selenis Leyva attends the 'Orange Is The New Black' Final Season Premiere in New York.

Stand-up comedy and academic research converge in new speaker series ‘Latinxs and Comedy’

09.20.23
Featured Events