Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
Cherokee Nation Operational Solutions, LLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 29;17(7):e0272088. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272088. eCollection 2022.
Outside of pandemics, there is little information about occurrence of prolonged unplanned K-12 school closures (PUSC). We describe here the reasons, characteristics, and patterns of PUSC in the United States during 8 consecutive inter-pandemic academic years, 2011-2019.
From August 1, 2011 through June 30, 2019, daily systematic online searches were conducted to collect data on publicly announced unplanned school closures lasting ≥1 school days in the United States. Closures were categorized as prolonged when schools were closed for ≥5 unplanned days (approximating one full workweek), excluding weekends and scheduled days off per school calendars.
During the eight academic years, a total of 22,112 PUSCs were identified, affecting over 800,000 teachers and 13 million students that resulted in 91.5 million student-days lost. A median of 62.9% of students in PUSC-affected schools were eligible for subsidized school meals. Most affected schools were in cities (35%) and suburban areas (33%). Natural disasters (47%), adverse weather conditions (35%), and budget/teacher strikes (15%) were the most frequently cited reasons for PUSC; illness accounted for 1%, and building/facility issues, environmental issues and violence together accounted for the remaining 2%. The highest number of PUSCs occurred in Health and Human Services Regions 2, 3, 4, and 6 encompassing areas that are frequently in the path of hurricanes and tropical storms. The majority of PUSCs in these regions were attributed to a handful of hurricanes during the fall season, including hurricanes Sandy, Irma, Harvey, Florence, and Matthew.
PUSCs occur annually in the United States due to a variety of causes and are associated with a substantive loss of student-days for in-school learning. Both these prior experiences with PUSCs and those during the current COVID-19 pandemic illustrate a need for creating sustainable solutions for high-quality distance learning and innovative supplemental feeding programs nationwide, especially in disaster-prone areas.
在大流行之外，关于 K-12 学校长时间非计划性关闭（PUSC）的发生情况，信息甚少。本研究描述了 2011-2019 年美国 8 个连续非大流行学年期间 PUSC 的原因、特征和模式。
从 2011 年 8 月 1 日至 2019 年 6 月 30 日，我们每天通过在线系统进行系统搜索，以收集美国持续时间≥1 个上学日的非计划性学校关闭数据。当学校关闭≥5 个非计划性日（接近一个完整的工作周）时，将其归类为长时间关闭，周末和学校日历上的预定休息日除外。
在这 8 个学年中，共发现 22112 例 PUSC，影响了超过 80 万名教师和 1300 万名学生，导致 9150 万名学生缺课。受 PUSC 影响学校的学生中，有中位数 62.9%符合享受补贴餐食的条件。受影响最严重的学校位于城市（35%）和郊区（33%）。自然灾害（47%）、恶劣天气条件（35%）和预算/教师罢工（15%）是 PUSC 最常被提及的原因；疾病占 1%，建筑/设施问题、环境问题和暴力事件共占剩余的 2%。PUSC 发生最多的是涵盖经常受到飓风和热带风暴影响地区的卫生与公众服务部第 2、3、4 和 6 区域。这些区域的大多数 PUSC 归因于秋季发生的少数几次飓风，包括桑迪、艾玛、哈维、佛罗伦萨和马修飓风。
由于各种原因，美国每年都会发生 PUSC，这导致学生在校学习的时间大量流失。过去发生的 PUSC 事件和当前 COVID-19 大流行都表明，需要在全国范围内为高质量的远程学习和创新的补充供餐计划创建可持续解决方案，特别是在易受灾地区。
