The Scouting Report: Flu Contagion in Schools

As the nation and the world continue to grapple with H1N1, school closures are one policy tool under consideration to slow spread of the pandemic. In the first comprehensive U.S. study of the economic cost of school and daycare center closures, Brookings’ Center on Social and Economic Dynamics (CSED) found that closing all schools in the U.S. for four weeks could cost between $10 to $47 billion dollars–a conservative estimate because only earnings rather than total compensation were used to calculate costs–and could lead to a reduction of up to 19% in key health care personnel.

On October 21, Ross Hammond, a Brookings fellow and co-author of the report, “Economic Cost and Health Care Workforce Effects of School Closures in the U.S.,” and Fred Barbash, Politico senior editor, hosted a live web chat about the implications and potential costs of school closures.

Read the transcript »