Much like what has happened in 2020, most U.S. schools closed during the . Their doors were shut for up to four months, , to curb the spread of the disease.
As a professor who , I have studied how schools responded to the 1918 influenza pandemic. Though wary of painting the past with the present鈥檚 favorite colors, I see three main lessons today鈥檚 educators and policymakers can draw from how schools and communities responded to the last century鈥檚 pandemic.
1. Invest in school nurses
when they were first .
Rather than simply send sick students home, where they would miss school while receiving no treatment, nurses cared for children鈥檚 illnesses and .
After a study showed that , more and more cities funded them. Within 11 years of the first nurse being hired, .
In 1919, nurse S.M. Connor, while apologizing for not doing more 鈥渙wing to the handicap of the influenza epidemic,鈥� submitted a report to the Neenah, Wisconsin school board of her work. Connor made 1,216 home visits, took children to doctors and delivered community health talks, in addition to conducting .
In November 1918, New York City Health Commissioner Royal Copeland underscored the role of school nurses. Being under 鈥渢he constant observation of qualified persons鈥� gave students 鈥渁 degree of safety that would not have been possible otherwise鈥� and 鈥済ave us the opportunity to educate both the children and their parents to the demands of health,鈥� he said in a report titled 鈥�.鈥�
2. Partner with other authorities
In a version of the African proverb 鈥�,鈥� a study of identified 鈥減lanning that brings public health, education officials, and political leaders together鈥� as key to successful responses.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Rochester, New York, school and health officials combined forces with organizations representing immigrant communities. In Los Angeles, the mayor, health commissioner, police chief and school superintendent collaborated to monitor infection rates, provide teachers additional training, and create and deliver homework for .
Such cooperation also helped schools as they reopened.
In St. Louis, while schools were closed, police cars became ambulances, and teachers worked in health agencies. Students returned to school November 14, but by the month鈥檚 end the city saw a new influenza surge, leading to another school closure.
Political, health and education leaders designed a gradual reopening that saw high schools open first, followed a month later, . Thanks to these , St. Louis had 358 deaths per 100,000 people, .
3. Tie education to other priorities
In 1916 the proclaimed that the 鈥渆ducation of the schools is important, but life and health are more important.鈥�
Reformers of the period, known as the , took that notion to heart. In addition to school nurses, they established , built playgrounds and promoted outdoor education.
They attacked by enacting , making and improving the .
By the time the pandemic hit, President Woodrow Wilson had declared 1918 the 鈥�.鈥� Schools stood ready to deliver and .
When schools reopened, children could learn in what Copeland described as 鈥溾�� with outdoor spaces.
Children playing on a Boston rooftop in 1909. Lewis Wickes Hine/Library of Congress
Heeding those lessons in 2020
A century after Americans learned the importance of investing in school nurses, . Only , and about 25% have no nurse at all. A recent analysis concluded that reopening safely will cost an additional , on average, to hire more school nurses.
These figures are higher for urban schools that educate more students of color, poor students and immigrants, and come as the pandemic鈥檚 economic fallout is already .
Even so and despite the federal government鈥檚 , local communities, as in 1918, are fighting this devastating pandemic with teamwork. In , , , and elsewhere, city councils, school districts, nonprofits, and labor and business groups are working together to meet their communities鈥� needs.
And a movement, spurred by anger over the , police brutality and widespread concerns about , is demanding that all jurisdictions spend especially now, when the challenges brought about by the pandemic make more essential than ever.
