School Perceptions and Attendance for Children With Medical Complexity During COVID-19 Over Time.
Ryan J Coller, Gregory P DeMuri, Jens C Eickhoff and 8 others
PMID 39228276WHAT IT FOUND
Full-time in-person school attendance rose from 48.4% to 90.1% across three survey waves, but confidence in school safety did not improve equally.
Families reporting motivation, benefits, and school encouragement were more likely to attend.
Key findings
01Full-time in-person school attendance increased from 48.4% at wave 1 to 90.9% by wave 2 and remained at 90.1% in wave 3.
02After adjustment, predicted probability of full-time in-person attendance was higher when family motivation was higher (76% vs 98%), perceived benefits were higher (89% vs 94%), and school cues were present (90% vs 94%).
03Perceptions improved over time in most Health Belief Model domains, but perceived susceptibility to school safety worsened, and at wave 3 only 52.9% were comfortable with the amount of school testing and 59.7% with school precautions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only families whose child had attended school in person before the pandemic were included, so the results do not speak to children who were homebound or never attended in person. Attendance and perceptions were self-reported by families and were not validated against school, testing, or vaccination records. The study did not have district-specific school policy or teaching mode data, so changes in attendance cannot be separated from local school policies. Response was 52.9% of invited families, and the sample was less racially and ethnically diverse and skewed toward higher income families than some regions. As an observational cohort, it can show associations over time but cannot prove that perceptions caused attendance.
Declared interests
No conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the article text. The publication types indicate NIH Extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that school encouragement or positive messaging caused attendance to rise. The study was observational and the authors state they cannot draw causal conclusions.