Winter Storms and Unplanned School Closure Announcements on Twitter: Comparison Between the States of Massachusetts and Georgia, 2017–2018

Abstract

Abstract Objective: This project aimed to quantify and compare Massachusetts and Georgia public school districts’ 2017–2018 winter-storm-related Twitter unplanned school closure announcements (USCA). Methods: Public school district Twitter handles and National Center for Education Statistics data were obtained for Georgia and Massachusetts. Tweets were retrieved using Twitter application programming interface. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses were conducted to compare the rates of winter-storm-related USCA. Results: Massachusetts had more winter storms than Georgia during the 2017–2018 winter season, but Massachusetts school districts posted winter-storm-related USCA at a 60% lower rate per affected day (adjusted rate ratio, aRR = 0.40, 95% confidence intervals, CI: 0.30, 0.52) than Georgia school districts after controlling for the student enrollments and Twitter followers count per Twitter account. A 10-fold increase in followers count was correlated with a 118% increase in USCA rate per affected day (aRR = 2.18; 95% CI: 1.74, 2.75). Georgia school districts had a higher average USCA tweet rate per winter-storm-affected day than Massachusetts school districts. A higher number of Twitter followers was associated with a higher number of USCA tweets per winter-storm-affected day. Conclusion: Twitter accounts of school districts in Massachusetts had a lower tweet rate for USCA per winter-storm-affected days than those in Georgia.