Reopening Schools Safely and Educating Youth Research Study (ROSSEY) (ROSSEY)

Reopening Schools Safely and Educating Youth Research Study

The study has three aims and involves a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) where K-5 schools will be the unit of randomization. Aim 1 involves a qualitative assessment of rural Latino community's social, ethical, behavioral needs and resources for students to return to school and maintain onsite learning. Aim 2 includes a clustered RCT in schools. Aim 3 involves qualitative assessment of implementation outcomes of the Yakima School District (YSD) testing program and risk communication intervention with school stakeholders, parents, and children.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Absenteeism
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: COVID-19 Health Education Comic Books and Videos

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVE:

Aim 1. Identify the rural Latino community's social, ethical, behavioral needs and resources for students to return to school and maintain onsite learning using qualitative assessments with school stakeholders, parents, and students.

Aim 2. Evaluate the effectiveness of risk communication on student attendance and participation in SARS-CoV-2 testing using a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) with two intervention arms: intervention (SARS-CoV-2 Risk Communication) and comparison (control group) arm.

Aim 3. Assess implementation outcomes of the Yakima School District testing program and risk communication intervention with school stakeholders, parents, and children guided by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework.

OVERVIEW:

The study has three aims and involves a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) where K-5 elementary schools will be the unit of randomization. Aim 1 will involve conducting qualitative assessments with school stakeholders, parents and students to to assess social, ethical, cultural, and behavioral concerns related to COVID-19 in the community. This data will be used to guide the development of the risk communication strategies (e.g., comic books and videos). Aim 2 includes a clustered RCT conducted in Yakima School District elementary schools to evaluate the effect of risk communication on testing uptake. We will assess primary outcome on students; parent/guardian will provide informed consent through either an online, paper, or telephone process to enroll in the study. Following consent, parent/guardians of participants will receive instructions on study procedures and complete the enrollment questionnaire either via online, on paper, or over the telephone with a study staff member. If the students attend a school that is randomized into the intervention group, they will receive the risk communication as three comic books and their parents will receive two videos at regular intervals throughout the study in English and Spanish. The communication intervention will highlight benefits of and address barriers to preventative behaviors, SARS-CoV-2 testing, and COVID-19 vaccines. Participants in the comparison group will receive the risk communication comic books and videos at the end of the study as part of the delayed intervention. Secondary outcome measures will be assessed for one index child in all families who have children enrolled in the study.

To prepare for this large trial, the study will institute a pilot study conducting weekly novel coronavirus surveillance testing in one school during April - June 2021 to understand the implementation steps and the workflow of working with schools. The larger RCT trial will be implemented in 14 K-5 schools in Fall 2021 - Spring 2023 school year.

All students in the Yakima School District has access to the Yakima School District's COVID-19 static testing site. Screening and symptomatic testing will be available (but not mandated) to Yakima School District students through the static site. School attendance and SARS-CoV-2 test results on students enrolled in our research study will come from schools.

STUDY POPULATION:

The schools participating in the study come from an agricultural region of Washington state.

STUDY TIME PERIOD:

August 2021-March 2023.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES: The primary analysis will be based on the average number of onsite learning hours per week over the study period for each student. The data will be analyzed using a linear mixed effects model with district and randomization arm as fixed effects, and school and classroom within school as random effects. Analyses will test for any difference between the randomization arms using α = 0.05 and report the comparisons between arms.

STUDY OUTCOMES:

The primary outcome for children will be absenteeism (hours per week missing onsite learning).

The secondary outcome will be assessed in parent/child dyads. Parents will share their child's physical activity and emotional regulation; and will be assessed for perceived stress, COVID-related stress, and depressive symptomatology for parents.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1095
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98109
      • University of Washington

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 4 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participant attends or works in a participating school for at least 2 days/week.
• Participant must be willing to comply with all study procedures, including weekly online check-ins and phone interviews.
• Participant should have consistent and reliable Internet access, either by smart phone or computer.
• Participant must be comfortable speaking English or Spanish.
• Participant must be able to provide online informed consent and/or legal guardian assent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals unable to provide informed consent / assent, except in cases where the participant has an available legal authorized representative and/or parent
• Individuals who are incarcerated
• Individuals with conditions that may preclude or limit the participant's ability to comply with study procedures, according to the investigators
• Children who are wards of the state and who have clinically-diagnosed dementia, terminal (<5 years) illness, major psychiatric illness, severe hearing impairment, and inability to move, which will be assessed during the distribution of the study recruitment packets to families.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control Group; This arm will include schools(n=7) and the enrolled families from those schools assigned as the control group, who will not receive the COVID-19 health education comic books and video intervention.
Active Comparator: COVID-19 Comic Books and Videos; This arm will include schools (n=7) and enrolled families from those schools that are randomized to receive the health education with comic books and videos focused on the benefits of preventive measures for COVID-19.	Behavioral: COVID-19 Health Education Comic Books and Videos; Comic books and videos will be shared with intervention students and their parents to provide education on COVID-19 topics such as masking, social distancing and COVID-19 testing

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
School Attendance	How many school days missed due to symptoms of respiratory illness (only include index child).	Up to nine months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Emotional Regulation of Index Children at Baseline (T1)	Index children will be assessed for physical activity, perceived stress, COVID-related stress, and depressive symptomatology from the PROMIS measures of Index Child Only (n=463) PROMIS® (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) is a set of person-centered measures that evaluates and monitors physical, mental, and social health in adults and children. It can be used with the general population and with individuals living with chronic conditions. PROMIS scores are typically reported on a T-score metric, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. Higher T-scores indicate moderate to severe symptoms. T-scores above 60 are considered moderate, and those above 70 indicate severe symptoms.	Completed at baseline (T1)
Perceived Stress of Parents at Baseline (T1)	Parents of enrolled children will be assessed for perceived stress, sleep disturbance, and emotional regulation using PROMIS measure. PROMIS® (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) is a set of person-centered measures that evaluates and monitors physical, mental, and social health in adults and children. It can be used with the general population and with individuals living with chronic conditions. PROMIS scores are typically reported on a T-score metric, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. Higher T-scores indicate moderate to severe symptoms. T-scores above 60 are considered moderate, and those above 70 indicate severe symptoms. .	Completed at baseline (T1)
Emotional Regulation of Index Children at Post Survey 1 (T2)	Post Survey assessment using PROMIS measures will evaluate physical activity, perceived stress, COVID-related stress, and depressive symptoms among 408 index children, out of an original cohort of 463, with 55 lost to follow-up. PROMIS® (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) is a set of person-centered measures that evaluates and monitors physical, mental, and social health in adults and children. It can be used with the general population and with individuals living with chronic conditions. PROMIS scores are typically reported on a T-score metric, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. Higher T-scores indicate moderate to severe symptoms. T-scores above 60 are considered moderate, and those above 70 indicate severe symptoms.	Post survey 1 (T2)
Perceived Stress of Parents at Post Survey 1 (T2)	Parents of enrolled children will be assessed for perceived stress, sleep disturbance, and emotional regulation using PROMIS measure. PROMIS® (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) is a set of person-centered measures that evaluates and monitors physical, mental, and social health in adults and children. It can be used with the general population and with individuals living with chronic conditions. PROMIS scores are typically reported on a T-score metric, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. Higher T-scores indicate moderate to severe symptoms. T-scores above 60 are considered moderate, and those above 70 indicate severe symptoms. .	Completed at Post survey 1 (T2)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Washington
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Linda Ko, PhD, MPH, University of Washington

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Pascoe KM, Bishop S, Ci X, Ramirez M, Perez G, Ibarra G, Garza L, Linde S, Duran MC, Chae HY, Quigley T, Hassell L, Garrison MM, Drain PK, Shah PD, Ko LK. Factors that shape COVID-19 pediatric vaccine decision-making in rural agricultural communities: A qualitative study. Vaccine. 2024 Dec 2;42(26):126389. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.126389. Epub 2024 Oct 4.
• Constantin AM, Noertjojo K, Sommer I, Pizarro AB, Persad E, Durao S, Nussbaumer-Streit B, McElvenny DM, Rhodes S, Martin C, Sampson O, Jorgensen KJ, Bruschettini M. Workplace interventions to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection outside of healthcare settings. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 Apr 10;4(4):CD015112. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD015112.pub3.
• Ramirez M, Shah PD, Chu HY, Garza L, Linde S, Garrison MM, Zhou C, Bishop S, Ibarra G, Ko LK. Reopening schools safely and educating youth (ROSSEY) study: Protocol for a community-based, cluster randomized controlled trial. Contemp Clin Trials. 2024 Apr;139:107480. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107480. Epub 2024 Feb 19.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 17, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 8, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 16, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 21, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): April 26, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): October 8, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 19, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; Risk communication; School re-opening; Rural communities
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Technology, Industry, and Agriculture; Technology; Tape Recording; Audiovisual Aids; Educational Technology; Television; Videotape Recording
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00014531-A; 1OT2HD107544-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No