Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May-Jun;27(3):229-232.
doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001334.

Data-Driven Reopening of Urban Public Education Through Chicago's Tracking of COVID-19 School Transmission

Marielle J Fricchione  1 , Jennifer Y Seo, M Allison Arwady
Affiliations

Data-Driven Reopening of Urban Public Education Through Chicago's Tracking of COVID-19 School Transmission

Marielle J Fricchione et al. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2021 May-Jun.

Abstract

Reopening in-person education in public schools during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic requires careful risk-benefit analysis, with no current established metrics. Equity concerns in urban public schools such as decreased enrollment among largely Black and Latinx prekindergarten and special needs public school students already disproportionately impacted by the pandemic itself have added urgency to Chicago Department of Public Health's analysis of COVID-19 transmission. Close tracking within a large school system revealed a lower attack rate for students and staff participating in in-person learning than for the community overall. By combining local data from a large urban private school system with national and international data on maintaining in-person learning during COVID-19 surges, Chicago believes in-person public education poses a low risk of transmission when the operational burden imposed by the second wave has subsided.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Mannheim J, Gretsch S, Layden JE, Fricchione MJ. Characteristics of hospitalized pediatric coronavirus disease 2019 cases in Chicago, Illinois, March-April 2020. J Pediatr Infect Dis Soc. 2020;9(5):519–522.
    1. City of Chicago Public Health Order No. 2020-2. https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/sites/covid/health-orders/CDPH%... . Updated October 1, 2020. Accessed November 30, 2020.
    1. Chicago Department of Public Health. Interim guidance on management of COVID-19 cases in preK-12 schools. https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdph/HealthProtectionandR... ; www.chicago.gov/coronavirus . Updated October 21, 2020. Accessed November 30, 2020.
    1. US Census Bureau. 2018 American Community Survey: 1-year population estimate, Chicago City, Illinois. https://www.census.gov/acs/www/data/data-tables-and-tools/data-profiles/... . Accessed November 22, 2020.
    1. American Academy of Pediatrics. COVID-19 planning considerations: guidance for school re-entry. https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infect... . Accessed November 22, 2020.