Reuters/Ipsos: Schools Reopening Amid Coronavirus Pandemic (07/16/2020)

Washington, DC, July 16, 2020 –  A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows a majority of Americans do not think it is safe to open schools in their communities at this time. Americans are in disagreement about who should be the deciding body for determining how and when schools reopen. American parents are also split on whether they would send their child to school this Fall if schools were to reopen.

More than half of Americans (55%) do not believe it is safe to reopen schools in their own communities.

• Democrats (75%) are more likely than Republicans (32%) to say it is not safe to reopen schools.
• Level of personal concern around coronavirus is the driving factor in perceptions about school reopenings. Those who say they are somewhat or very concerned about the spread of coronavirus are significantly more likely to say it is not safe to reopen schools (64%), compared to respondents who say they are not concerned personally (21% say it is not safe to reopen).

A plurality of Americans say public health experts should determine when (40%) and how (40%) to reopen schools.

• School districts are seen by about one-fifth of Americans as being the body that should determine when (17%) and how (19%) schools reopen.
• Democrats are much more likely to say public health experts should be the ones that determine when (50%) and how (51%) schools reopen, compared to just one in three Republicans who feel the same (29% say public health experts should determine when, and 30% say public health experts should determine how schools reopen).

Most Americans say that school should resume in the Fall either on a partial schedule (43%) or completely online (37%), while just 20% of Americans believe that schools should reopen fully.

• Democrats (44%) and Republicans (41%) find common ground on partial reopening.
• However, far more Republicans would like to see a full reopening (37%) compared to just 8% of Democrats. On the other hand, Democrats (48%) are much more likely to say schools should only be online compared to just 22% of Republicans.
• About half of American parents said they are somewhat or very likely to send their child to school this Fall if they were to reopen (52%). Republicans are much more likely to say this (71%) than Democrats (42%). 

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between July 14-15, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,114 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 500 Democrats, 429 Republicans and 118 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval ± 5.0 percentage points for Democrats, ± 5.4 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 10.3 percentage points for independents.  

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Kate Silverstein
Media Relations, US
Public Affairs
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected]

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