Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Jessamyn Schaller

Abstract

This paper investigates how variation in K–12 school reopening policies across U.S. states during the COVID-19 pandemic affected Medicaid-covered ADHD stimulant medication prescriptions. Using an event study and difference-in-differences framework with state and time fixed effects, I exploit variation in the timing and mode of school reopening across states from 2017 to 2022. School reopening data are drawn from a national district-level panel tracking the share of students attending school in-person, hybrid, or virtually; prescription outcomes are from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services State Drug Utilization Data. The event study reveals a sharp decline in ADHD prescriptions at COVID onset (2020 Q2: −0.190 log points, p < 0.01), followed by divergent recovery: early-reopening states reached 0.38 log points above baseline by 2022 Q4, while late-reopening states remained flat. I interpret this as evidence that schools were initially critical to ADHD identification, and that the medical sector subsequently adapted through telemedicine and modified diagnostic pathways. The two-way fixed effects estimate of average in-person attendance on log prescriptions is positive but statistically insignificant (unweighted coefficient: 0.098, p = 0.441), consistent with adaptation having attenuated the average effect by the time cross-state variation was largest. This study contributes to the literature on the unintended health consequences of COVID-19 policy responses and highlights the dependence of children's mental health treatment on school-based identification systems.

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