BackgroundDuring an evolving influenza pandemic, community mitigation strategies, such as social distancing, can slow down virus transmission in schools and surrounding communities. To date, research on school practices to promote social distancing in primary and secondary schools has focused on prolonged school closure, with little attention paid to the identification and feasibility of other more sustainable interventions. To develop a list and typology of school practices that have been proposed and/or implemented in an influenza pandemic and to uncover any barriers identified, lessons learned from their use, and documented impacts.MethodsWe conducted a review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature on social distancing interventions in schools other than school closure. We also collected state government guidance documents directed to local education agencies or schools to assess state policies regarding social distancing. We collected standardized information from each document using an abstraction form and generated descriptive statistics on common plan elements.ResultsThe document review revealed limited literature on school practices to promote social distancing, as well as limited incorporation of school practices to promote social distancing into state government guidance documents. Among the 38 states that had guidance documents that met inclusion criteria, fewer than half (42%) mentioned a single school practice to promote social distancing, and none provided any substantive detail about the policies or practices needed to enact them. The most frequently identified school practices were cancelling or postponing after-school activities, canceling classes or activities with a high rate of mixing/contact that occur within the school day, and reducing mixing during transport.ConclusionLittle information is available to schools to develop policies and procedures on social distancing. Additional research and guidance are needed to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of school practices to promote social distancing.

Limited Print and Electronic Distribution RightsThis document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.html.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2133Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2017 RAND CorporationR® is a registered trademark.iii PrefaceThe reauthorization of the U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act, referred to as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), emphasizes evidence-based interventions while giving states and districts new flexibility on the use of federal funds, including funds that could be used to support social and emotional learning (SEL).The RAND Corporation reviewed recent evidence on U.S.-based SEL interventions for K-12 students to better inform the use of SEL interventions under ESSA. This report discusses the opportunities for supporting SEL under ESSA, the standards of evidence under ESSA, and SEL interventions that should be eligible for federal funds through ESSA. Federal, state, and district education policymakers can use this report to identify relevant, evidence-based SEL interventions that meet their local needs.This research was conducted in RAND Education (a division of the RAND Corporation) and commissioned by The Wallace Foundation. The Wallace Foundation is committed to supporting programs and practices that help children and young people develop the social and emotional skills they need for success, and to commissioning research that contributes credible, useful evidence to the field. SummaryAmong educators and researchers, there is growing acknowledgement that student success depends not only on achievement in core academic subjects but also on learning a broader range of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies. Efforts to develop these competencies are often described using the phrase social and emotional learning (SEL). Although the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) legislation does not explicitly mention SEL, educators and policymakers can leverage funding offered under ESSA to support evidence-based programming that is related to SEL and ...

Limited Print and Electronic Distribution RightsThis document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.

School and Classroom Climate MeasuresConsiderations for Use by State and Local Education Leaders R esearch confirms the widespread belief that student learning is influenced by features of the school and classroom environments in which instruction takes place. These qualities of the learning environment, often referred to as school and classroom climate (a concept we define in detail later), are associated with higher student achievement (Allensworth,

■ Parents, school administrators, and community sports program leaders who participated in our survey perceive great benefits of youth sports participation in the areas of physical health, social and emotional skills, and academics.■ Youth sports participation rates are relatively high, and perceived demand has grown for youth sports in schools and community-based programs, according to those surveyed.■ Sports participation gaps exist between youths from lower-income families and middle-and higherincome families. Only 52 percent of parents from lower-income families reported that their student in grade 6-12 participated in sports, compared with 66 percent of middle-and higher-income families.Our finding is consistent with prior research which found a 25 percent sports participation gap between children from families earning less than $30,000 per year and those from families earning $75,000 or more per year (Pew Research Center, 2015).■ School administrators and community leaders in our survey noted that, in the past five years, most school sports budgets have not increased, despite rising sports fees for both school and community-based sports. This places the burden on families to provide additional financial support. Higher fees are likely more difficult for lower-income families to bear. For lower-income parents (those with a household income of less than $50,000), expense was the second-most-common reason their child did not participate in sports.