Sweden is on the verge of making it even easier for parents to keep sick children home from school.
This is likely more effective than cloth mask mandates.
While some school districts in the United States reinstate mask mandates — for example, Sacramento, Philadelphia, and Berkeley — the Swedish government pays parents to keep their sick children at home or take them to the doctor, a 40-year-old social insurance policy the government is currently looking to expand. The Swedish policy is not a pandemic policy per se, but a perfect example of how generous social insurance policies make a society more resilient to the coronavirus and everything else.
The VAB (vård av barn) policy — “care for a sick child” — currently provides “compensation for caring for a sick child for a maximum of 120 days per year” and can be applied for online or via app in a few minutes.
Currently, according to Radio Sweden, parents have a right to the VAB for sick kids under 12 without a doctor’s note and for sick kids 12–16 with a doctor’s note, but the government would like to expand the upper age limit to 18 years of age.
Regarding doctor and dentist visits, parents can receive compensation for accompanying children up to 18, but currently that benefit is only paid out for children 12 and older if the doctor certifies a parent needs to be at the visit. An expanded VAB would likely eliminate the need for that certification.
Single parents who are sick can currently let someone else care for their child and receive the VAB, but only if their child is under 3 — the expanded VAB would raise the limit to 12 years of age, which would undoubtedly make it much easier for single parents to keep their sick children home from school.
Despite the existing limitations, the VAB in its current form seems to be working to guarantee children receive the care they need when sick — and the opportunity to convalesce at home instead of slumped over one’s desk in a crowded classroom. In 2020, Swedish parents stayed home with sick school-age children for 8.3 million days, which was a 24 percent increase over 2019.
In the U.S., unlike all other high-income countries, there is no federal requirement for paid sick leave. Many American adults can’t even stay home when they’re sick themselves, let alone to care for a suffering child. This obviously leads to more sick children attending…
