Monitoring Different Social Media Platforms to Report Unplanned School Closures Due to Wildfires in California, October and December 2017.

Objective: Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitor unplanned school closure (USC) reports through online systematic searches (OSS) to assist public health emergency responses. We counted the additional reports identified through social media along with OSS to improve USC monitoring.

Methods: Facebook and Twitter data of public-school districts and private schools in counties affected by California wildfires in October and December of 2017 and January of 2018 were retrieved.

Using Twitter to Track Unplanned School Closures: Georgia Public Schools, 2015-17.

Objectives: To aid emergency response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers monitor unplanned school closures (USCs) by conducting online systematic searches (OSS) to identify relevant publicly available reports. We examined the added utility of analyzing Twitter data to improve USC monitoring.

Methods: Georgia public school data were obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics.