Has your child returned to the classroom or are they still at home? With some students learning online or experiencing a hybrid of online and in-person classes due to COVID-19, you might be interested in learning where the Safest States for Schools to Reopen are located.

The report was prepared by the personal-finance website WalletHub and it recently released its findings. To identify which states have the safest conditions for reopening schools, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 15 key metrics. The data set includes such things as the number of child COVID-19 cases per 100,000 children, the average public-school class size, and the ratio of students to school nurses. Below, you can see highlights from the report and where California rates:

School Reopening Safety in California (1=Safest, 25=Avg.):

35th – Child COVID-19 Cases per 100,000 Children

19th – Child COVID-19 Deaths per 100,000 Children

23rd – COVID-19 Cases in the Last Seven Days per 100,000 Residents

1st – Share of K-12 Public School Students Transported Through School Transportation

47th – Average Public-School Class Size

49th – Pupil-Teacher Ratio

49th – Share of Seniors Living with School-Age Children

46th – Share of Children Living in Crowded Housing

18th – Overall Likelihood of COVID-19 Infections

40th – Student-to-School-Nurse Ratio

In-person Schooling
In-person schooling is not just good for kids but also important for the economy, according to the WalletHub release.

“In-person schooling is vital for the economy because it both provides temporary supervision for children during the day and most importantly helps students have a better chance of achieving future economic success. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the most immediate concern is that when a child has to stay home to do online schooling, one parent will need to also stay home if the child is not old enough to be left alone.

“This puts a particularly high burden on single parents who can’t work from home, who may not be able to earn a living while their child remains home,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “In the long term, studies show that in-person schooling provides more effective learning for students, in addition to better social development and mental health, compared to online learning. Students who get instruction in the classroom therefore may have better economic futures. Of course, we should put everyone’s safety first, and only open schools in a safe way.”

Support for Low-income Students

Also, some ways schools are conducting online learning can support low-income students with fewer resources at home

“Schools that are conducting online learning have a responsibility to make sure low-income students have access to the same resources as their peers, including reliable devices and Wi-Fi. School districts should provide laptops to students who cannot afford them, as well as set up Wi-Fi hotspots that ensure all students have constant internet access,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “Low-income students may also need free lunches each day, and parents should contact their school or visit the USDA website to see where they can pick up those meals while schools remain closed.”

For the full report, please visit here.
Source: WalletHub