Abstract
As more children are exposed to climate disasters, the effects of repeated hazards on education are increasingly important but also unclear: some theories predict compounding negative effects from each consecutive hazard, whereas others suggest attenuating disadvantages. Combining North Carolina’s longitudinal student records with fine-grained hurricane flooding data, I estimate the influences of two consecutive hurricanes on K–12 student attendance and learning. Results show that singular and repeated prolonged school closures resulted in similar declines in attendance and learning, and within school districts, singular and repeated exposure to residential flooding led to little or no additional declines. Together, these results suggest that prior exposure neither heightens nor dulls the educational impacts of a second event. Because district-wide closures accounted for most of the academic impacts, efforts to reduce prolonged school closure days in future storms would likely benefit students.
