JACKSON, Wyo. — As the fall school semester gets into full swing, students across the U.S. are having vastly different educational experiences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some students are having all schooling in person, others are doing all their learning online, and others are experiencing a hybrid of the two.
An extended lack of in-person schooling can lead to issues such as decreases in academic progress (especially in low-income districts), damage to mental health and social development, and less physical activity among students, according to the CDC.
The personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Safest States for Schools to Reopen.
Wyoming ranked 11th safest, just out of the top ten but ahead of every state in the Mountain West—Montana (#15), Colorado (#28), South Dakota (#31), Idaho (#33), and Utah (#43).
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.
