Higher chronic absenteeism threatens academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The broad and substantial educational harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has motivated large federal, state, and local investments in academic recovery. However, the success of these efforts depends in part on students' regular school attendance. Using state-level data, I show that the rate of chronic absenteeism among US public-school students grew substantially as students returned to in-person instruction.

A community response approach to mental health and substance abuse crises reduced crime.

Police officers often serve as first responders to mental health and substance abuse crises. Concerns over the unintended consequences and high costs associated with this approach have motivated emergency response models that augment or completely remove police involvement. However, there is little causal evidence evaluating these programs.

Ethnic studies increases longer-run academic engagement and attainment.

Increased interest in anti-racist education has motivated the rapidly growing but politically contentious adoption of ethnic studies (ES) courses in US public schools. A long-standing rationale for ES courses is that their emphasis on culturally relevant and critically engaged content (e.g.

The gift of time? School starting age and mental health.

Using linked Danish survey and register data, we estimate the causal effect of age at kindergarten entry on mental health. Danish children are supposed to enter kindergarten in the calendar year in which they turn 6 years. In a "fuzzy" regression-discontinuity design based on this rule and exact dates of birth, we find that a 1-year delay in kindergarten entry dramatically reduces inattention/hyperactivity at age 7 (effect size = -0.

Do parental involvement laws deter risky teen sex?

Parental involvement (PI) laws require that physicians notify or obtain consent from a parent(s) of a minor seeking an abortion before performing the procedure. Several studies suggest that PI laws curb risky sexual behavior because teens realize that they would be compelled to discuss a subsequent pregnancy with a parent. We show that prior evidence based on gonorrhea rates overlooked the frequent under-reporting of gonorrhea by race and ethnicity, and present new evidence on the effects of PI laws using more current data on the prevalence of gonorrhea and data that are novel to this literature (i.

Motorcycle helmets and traffic safety.

Between 1997 and 2005, the number of annual motorcyclist fatalities doubled. Motorcyclist fatalities now account for over 10 percent of all traffic-related fatalities. However, over the last three decades, states have generally been eliminating laws that require helmet use among all motorcyclists.

The strength of graduated drivers license programs and fatalities among teen drivers and passengers.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of differentially stringent graduated drivers license programs on teen driver fatalities, day-time and night-time teen driver fatalities, fatalities of teen drivers with passengers present, and fatalities among teen passengers.

Methods: The study uses 1992-2002 data on motor vehicle fatalities among 15-17-year-old drivers from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System to identify the effects of "good", "fair", and "marginal" GDL programs based upon designations by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Analysis is conducted using conditional negative binomial regressions with fixed effects.

Graduated driver licensing and teen traffic fatalities.

Over the last 8 years, nearly every state has introduced graduated driver licensing (GDL) for teens. These new licensing procedures require teen drivers to advance through distinct stages where they are subject to a variety of restrictions (e.g.

AIDS mortality may have contributed to the decline in syphilis rates in the United States in the 1990s.

Background: The mortality associated with AIDS among men may have had an influence on primary and secondary syphilis trends among men in the United States, through the loss of men at high risk for acquisition or transmission of syphilis in this population and/or by prompting safer sexual behaviors in response to the threat of AIDS.

Goal: The goal of this study was to examine the association between AIDS mortality rates and primary and secondary syphilis incidence rates among men in the United States from 1984 to 1997.

Study Design: We used a fixed-effects regression analysis of state-level AIDS mortality rates and primary and secondary syphilis incidence rates for men.