{"id":15323,"date":"2026-07-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=15323"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:33:13","slug":"school-difficulties-and-long-covid-in-children-and-adolescents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=15323","title":{"rendered":"School Difficulties and Long COVID in Children and Adolescents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.academicpedsjnl.net\/article\/S1876-2859(26)00096-3\/fulltext#\">Harrison T.\u00a0Reeder,\u00a0PhD<\/a><sup><a>a<\/a>,<a>b<\/a>,<a>1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:hreeder@mgh.harvard.edu\">Send email to\u00a0hreeder@mgh.harvard.edu<\/a>\u00a0\u2219\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.academicpedsjnl.net\/article\/S1876-2859(26)00096-3\/fulltext#\">Lawrence C.\u00a0Kleinman,\u00a0MD, MPH<\/a><sup><a>c<\/a>,<a>d<\/a>,<a>e<\/a>,<a>1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u2219\u00a0et.al.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abstract<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Objective<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pediatric Long COVID (LC) is an infection-associated chronic condition following SARS-CoV-2 infection. While research has begun to elucidate clinical phenotypes, functional impacts are not well described.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cross-sectional data from the NIH-funded&nbsp;<em>Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery<\/em>&nbsp;(RECOVER) pediatric observational cohort were analyzed to assess associations in school-age children (6 to 11 years) and adolescents (12 to 17 years) between LC and caregiver-reported school-related functional outcomes. LC was defined using RECOVER age group-specific symptom-based LC research indices. The primary outcome was worsening of child grades. Secondary outcomes included difficulty paying attention, limited fun with friends, and having an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Using age-stratified analyses, children&nbsp;<em>with<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>without<\/em>&nbsp;LC were matched based on age, sex, and dates of infection and enrollment, to estimate risk ratios (RRs) between LC and each outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Results<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cohort included 1976 children (406 school-age, 1570 adolescent). About 18% of school-age children and 29% of adolescents with LC had reported worsened grades, compared to 7% and 11% without LC, respectively [school-age: adjusted RR 2.18 (95% CI: 1.15\u20134.11); adolescent: adjusted RR 2.39 (95% CI: 1.86\u20133.06)]. In both age groups, children with LC were more likely to have difficulty paying attention, limited fun with friends, and IEPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LC in school-age children and adolescents was negatively associated with functional school-related outcomes, including academic performance, attention, and peer interactions. As LC affects a substantial proportion of U.S. children, these findings highlight the urgent need to develop, provide, and evaluate school-related services for children and adolescents with LC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harrison T.\u00a0Reeder,\u00a0PhDa,b,1\u00a0Send email to\u00a0hreeder@mgh.harvard.edu\u00a0\u2219\u00a0Lawrence C.\u00a0Kleinman,\u00a0MD, MPHc,d,e,1\u00a0\u2219\u00a0et.al. Abstract Objective Pediatric Long COVID (LC) is an infection-associated chronic condition following SARS-CoV-2 infection. While research has begun to elucidate clinical phenotypes, functional impacts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670,360,1237,426,517],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-age-related-outcome","category-negative-outcomes","category-outcomes","category-pediatric-health-2","category-school-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15324,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15323\/revisions\/15324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}