School-Related Public Inquiries Received by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention During the COVID-19 Pandemic, United States, 2020-2022

Abstract Objectives After supporting the COVID-19 emergency response and responding to public inquiries, we sought to identify common themes to prepare for and improve future emergency response efforts. We examined how often various themes (topics) were asked of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through CDC-INFO (agents who respond to public requests) about the COVID-19 pandemic and kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) schools, whether inquiries included questions or complaints, how theme frequency changed, and how the source of CDC-INFO agent responses varied by theme. Methods We analyzed inquiries (questions or complaints) received by CDC-INFO from January 17, 2020, to November 8, 2022. We pilot-tested our protocol by coding 300 inquiries to create a code book with 11 themes (eg, quarantine and isolation, general guidance) and then tested them for interrater reliability before coding 4000 additional randomly selected inquiries (of 24 502 inquiries received). We then compiled descriptive statistics and used Chi-square goodness-of-fit tests to compare differences between frequencies of categorical variables. Results We found 2180 inquiries related to K-12 schools and COVID-19 and assigned 1 or more themes for analysis (resulting in 2439 themes). The most common theme was quarantine and isolation (39%). Across all themes, except for closures, the frequency of questions was greater than the frequency of complaints. For 5 of 11 themes (closure, general guidance, face masks, quarantine and isolation, travel), we found significant differences in inquiry frequency over time. For all themes, except for travel, we found significant differences in which sources CDC-INFO agents used to respond to inquiries. Conclusions Public health officials should be prepared to respond to school-based questions about quarantine and isolation and to address various topics as the emergency changes over time.