Indoor Dining and In-Person Learning: A Comparison of 30 U.S. Cities
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Report Publish Date: October 19, 2021
This journal article describes a study comparing 30 cities’ policies on indoor dining and in-person learning between May and December 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Primary Takeaways
All cities reopened indoor dining in fall 2020. During the same time, only 40% of public elementary schools in the 30 cities brought all students back to classrooms in person.
Overview and Objectives
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of federal guidance on safety measures led to a hodgepodge of decisions by states and local governments. Closing or opening schools and allowing or prohibiting indoor dining were two important policy decisions that cities made during the first year of the pandemic. The authors of this study wanted to compare the decisions of cities belonging to the Big Cities Health Coalition on these two issues.
Hypothesis or Approach
The authors hypothesized that cities would reopen schools while still prohibiting indoor dining because the risks associated with schools was found to be lower than that of indoor dining. They searched for state, city, and county reopening orders and public statements on publicly available databases, government websites, social media, and news sites.
How This Influences Change
“In-person learning is critical for children’s educational and social development and the evidence now clearly states that closing indoor dining venues is an effective measure to reduce COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates,” the authors write. “This retrospective analysis can help inform future policy decisions around indoor dining and school closures/reopening and help us understand past decisions.”
Research: Go Deeper
With limited US federal leadership on closing and re-opening strategies to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, cities and states were left to enact their own policies. This article examines two key sets of policies—in-person learning in public elementary schools and indoor dining—across 30 of the largest US cities in the summer, fall, and winter of 2020. We review indoor dining and in-person elementary education policy decisions between May 1, 2020 and December 14, 2020 across 30 US cities. We review the public health evidence, political power, and jurisdictional challenges that cities faced, and the policy implications of these factors. Overwhelmingly, indoor dining re-opened in cities while in-person elementary schools were kept closed; indoor dining re-opened in all cities in fall 2020, while only 40% of public elementary schools re-opened for in-person instruction. Looking ahead to fully bringing students back for in-person learning, and considering future potential community outbreaks, this retrospective analysis can help inform city and state governments on policy decisions around indoor dining and reopening/closing schools for in-person learning.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. October 19, 2021. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182010967
Research Team
This study and report was conducted and created by the following people.
- O’Leary G
- Schnake-Mahl AS
- Vaidya V
- Bilal U
- Kolker J
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