60% in poll say school not safe

Most respondents in Arkansas said it was “not very safe” or “not safe at all” for students to return to kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools in their communities amid the pandemic, according to a research group.

Researchers from Northeastern University, Harvard University, Rutgers University and Northwestern University released state-specific survey results last week examining perceptions of school safety.

In Arkansas, the largest group of respondents — 31.1% — said it was “not safe at all” for primary and secondary students to go back to school. Another 29% said it was “not very safe.”

Nearly 11% of respondents said it was “very safe,” while 23% said it was “somewhat safe.” A few respondents of 387 people surveyed said they did not know.

Nationally, an average of 31% of adults said it’s “very” or “somewhat” safe for kids to go back to school this year.

Those views were strongly influenced by political affiliation, researchers wrote in their report. People who identify as Republican were more than three times more likely than Democrats to think of reopenings as safe, according to the poll results.

A similar partisan split was shown with support for in-person instruction at schools this fall.

Many schools in Arkansas begin classes this week.

The research was the latest in a series of academic polls, “The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States,” that are funded by the National Science Foundation.