About

Maria Fitzpatrick is a professor of economics and public policy at Cornell University, serving at the Brooks School of Public Policy. Her work focuses on the intersection of health and education policy, particularly how public programs influence children’s well-being and long-term human capital development. She studies school-embedded health services, such as school-based health and mental health centers, vision care, and case management, evaluating their effects on outcomes like attendance, graduation rates, emergency department use, and medication adherence. Her research often links large administrative datasets, including Medicaid claims, hospital encounters, and school records, applying modern causal methods such as randomized or quasi-experimental designs to generate actionable evidence for policymakers. Beyond school health, Fitzpatrick analyzes policies affecting early childhood, K–12, and higher education systems, including child welfare reporting, universal preschool, teacher compensation reforms, and college scholarships, examining their downstream effects on learning, attainment, and family well-being. She emphasizes translational impact by partnering with public agencies and research networks to design scalable evaluations and communicate results that inform better investments in children. Fitzpatrick is also the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Brooks School, Codirector of the National Data Archive for Child Abuse and Neglect, and Associate Center Director of the Cornell Center for Health Policy Research. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an Affiliate in the CESifo Research Network and the Cornell Population Center. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia and an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research themes include early childhood education policies, higher education investments, teacher labor markets, retirement and health, incarceration’s effects on families, and child maltreatment, with a focus on understanding how policies influence long-term outcomes for children and families.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Environmental health
• Psychiatry
• Actuarial science
• Optometry
• Nursing
• Medical education
• Economics
• Economic growth
• Gerontology
• Public relations
• Family medicine
• Library science
• Law
• Business
• Public economics
• Medicine
• Finance
• Philosophy

Selected publications

• Algorithms and Decision-making

  The Journal of Human Resources · 2025-08-08

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  <h3>Abstract</h3> Around 40% of children experience maltreatment (Finkelhor et al. 2013), with harmful outcomes and high social costs. Child protection decisions are complex, and potentially biased and/or prone to errors due to underfunding and overload. Our randomized controlled trial showed algorithmic tools sped up decision-making but didn9t significantly change child outcomes, perhaps because COVID disruptions limited outcome analysis. Results are suggestive that risk aversions played a role: high-risk cases flagged by the tool were more likely screened in, while low-risk cases weren’t more likely screened out. Time savings from the tool could enable caseworkers to spend more time directly with families.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Early School Medicaid Expansions and Health Services for Children With Parental Opioid Use Disorder

  JAMA Health Forum · 2025-06-13

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Importance: Children experiencing parental opioid use disorder are a growing population at heightened risk of physical and mental health issues over the life course. Yet these children are less likely to receive comprehensive, ongoing health care and their parents are more likely to report barriers to access health care for their children. School-based health services have potential to overcome some of these health care access barriers, including parental burden, transportation, time, costs, and health care discontinuity. In 2014, Medicaid revoked its longstanding free care rule, expanding the scope of school-based health services eligible for Medicaid reimbursement. Subsequently, some states began to expand their school Medicaid programs to benefit from the new federal rule. Objective: To estimate the early effects of state school Medicaid expansions on the receipt of Medicaid-funded school-based health services among children who have experienced parental opioid use disorder. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study using nationwide Medicaid claims data included Medicaid-enrolled children aged 5 to 18 years who experienced parental opioid use disorder at any point before age 19 years. A difference-in-differences design that exploits the staggered implementation of school Medicaid expansions between 2014 and 2019 was used. Data were analyzed between January 2023 and January 2025. Exposures: Children living in states implementing (treatment group) and not implementing (comparison group) school Medicaid expansions, before and after state-specific expansion dates. Main Outcomes and Measures: Binary measures indicating receipt of school-based health services, primary care, prevention, rehabilitative, dental, and mental health services, emergency department visits, and inpatient hospital stays. Results: The sample comprised 6 628 404 person-years from 1 700 304 children. The mean (SD) age was 10.5 (3.9) years and 3 371 918 (51%) were male. School Medicaid expansions increased the receipt of Medicaid-funded school-based health services by 8.9 percentage points (pp; P = .01). Growth was primarily driven by school claims for nursing services (difference, 7.4 pp; P = .02) and for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment services (difference, 8.6 pp; P = .04). Reductions in emergency department visits among children aged 5 to 11 years were also documented (difference, -1.8 pp; P = .02). Conclusions and Relevance: This cohort study found that, given the complex health and health care needs of children growing up amid the opioid crisis, integrating health care into schools may offer a promising policy solution.

  PublisherDOI

• The Effects of Targeted Follow-Up in School Health Programs on Children’s Health and Academic Achievement

  American Journal of Health Economics · 2024-12-09

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The prevalence and nature of COLAs in public sector retirement plans

  Journal of Pensions Economics and Finance · 2023-04-11

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract State and local employees comprise a significant proportion of the workforce and are largely covered by defined benefit pensions. Many of these retirement plans have been facing funding gaps, but legal restrictions often prevent them from reducing benefits for current employees. However, retirement plans can reduce liabilities by changing cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, which are commonly applied to benefits each year to allow retirees to maintain purchasing power in retirement. In this study, we examine the prevalence of COLAs in public sector retirement plans through original data collection for 49 plans in 30 states, which cover approximately 52% of public sector workers overall. Among these samples, on average 45% of workers each year experienced some change in COLAs between 2005 and 2018, with more than half of these workers experiencing negative changes. We consider stylized examples of public sector workers subject to reductions in COLAs to understand how COLAs may affect workers’ retirement decisions. Our analysis suggests that eliminating a 3% COLA could delay retirement of affected workers by approximately 4.5 months.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Teacher Pensions and Teacher Quality

  2022-09-28

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Over the past 20 years, the cost of teacher pensions has ballooned. In this chapter, I draw on existing literature to describe teacher pension systems, including how they differ from other pension systems, and discuss the implications of those systems for the quality of teachers in schools. This review of the literature finds little relationship between teacher quality and pension incentives. I offer some policy proposals grounded in the goals of (a) giving teachers the option to have more of their lifetime compensation paid to them while they are working and (b) giving citizens information about how much money is spent on teacher pensions (at the expense of spending on other things).

  PublisherDOI

• The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene School Vision Program: A description of program expansion

  PLoS ONE · 2022 · 6 citations

  • Political Science
  • Medicine
  • Psychology

  OBJECTIVE: This study describes how the School Vision Program (SVP) operates in NYC Public Schools, and how it has expanded to provide screening, follow-up, eye exams, and even glasses to more students in recent years. METHODS: Using administrative data from the SVP, we analyze a population sample of all public-school students with non-missing demographic variables in grades Pre-K through 12, focusing on the most recent year of data, 2018-19. We tabulate rates of screening and other results across students by grade and student characteristics, highlighting the expansion of SVP in community schools beginning in 2015-16. RESULTS: The SVP screens about 87% of students in Pre-K through 1st Grade each school year. Of the 22% of screened students who failed the screening in 2018-19, 69% received follow-up efforts, and 39% completed eye exams. Among students with completed eye exams, 13% of students in Pre-K through 1st grade were diagnosed with amblyopia, and 70% needed glasses. Less advantaged students in terms of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status were less likely to pass vision screenings and less likely to receive eye exams after failing the screening. The SVP's expansion to all grades in community schools and its provision of eye exams and glasses increased the rate of eye exams to 90% of students with a failed vision screening and distributed glasses to over 22,000 students in grades Pre-K to 12 in 2018-19. CONCLUSION: The expansion of SVP services in community schools suggests large potential benefits from school districts connecting students who fail vision screenings directly to eye doctors. Otherwise, low rates of follow-up eye exams in younger grades can lead to unidentified and unmet need for vision services in older grades, especially among disadvantaged students.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

  The Journal of Human Resources · 2022 · 25 citations

  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  Nearly four in ten children report experiencing maltreatment by adulthood. Educators in school settings may be crucial for early detection that mitigates maltreatment’s negative effects. Administrative data on reports of child maltreatment across the United States over 14 years allow us to use two different regression discontinuity methods, one based on school-entry laws and one on school calendars, to identify the role of educators in reporting. Both methods show educators are reporting cases that would otherwise go unreported. These findings are relevant for understanding the consequences of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic and for improving identification and reporting.

  PublisherDOI

• Does Working Longer Enhance Old Age?

  2022-02-04 · 1 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Understanding the link between retirement and health is crucial for both improving people’s well-being and for designing optimal public policy around retirement. Yet, to date, the economics literature has been inconclusive about whether retirement causes improvements or deterioration in health. The lack of consensus is likely driven by differences in study design, population, the age of workers, and the set of health outcomes studied. In this chapter, I explain and distill the literature, highlight patterns in the highest quality studies, and discuss the implications of the findings for longevity risk management and worker and retiree health going forward.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• New Models for Managing Longevity Risk

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2022 · 3 citations

  • Political Science
  • Business
  • Finance

  Abstract Notwithstanding the terrible price the world has paid in the Coronavirus pandemic, the fact remains that longevity at older ages is likely to continue to rise in the medium and longer term. This volume explores how the private and public sectors can collaborate via public-private partnerships (PPPs) to develop new mechanisms to reduce older people’s risk of outliving their assets in later life. As we show in this volume, PPPs typically involve shared government financing alongside private-sector partner expertise, management responsibility, and accountability. In addition to offering empirical evidence on examples where this is working well, our contributors provide case studies, discuss survey results, and examine a variety of different financial and insurance products to better meet the needs of the aging population. The volume will be informative to researchers, plan sponsors, students, and policymakers seeking to enhance retirement plan offerings.

  DOI

• Integrated Surveillance System for Controlling COVID-19 on a University Campus, 2020‒2021

  American Journal of Public Health · 2022-06-21 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  To minimize the impacts of COVID-19 and to keep campus open, Cornell University’s Ithaca, NY, campus implemented a comprehensive process to monitor COVID-19 spread, support prevention practices, and assess early warning indicators linked to knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes of campus community members. The integrated surveillance approach informed leadership and allowed for prompt adjustments to university policies and practices through evidence-based decisions. This approach enhanced healthy behaviors and promoted the well-being and safety of all community members. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(7):980–984. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306838 )

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Timothy E. Moore

  University of Connecticut

  36 shared

• Michael Lovenheim

  31 shared

• Susanna Loeb

  27 shared

• Daphna Bassok

  24 shared

• Christopher Wildeman

  Rockwool Foundation

  14 shared

• Sarah Hastedt

  5 shared

• Agustina Paglayan

  University of California, San Diego

  5 shared

• Kathleen McGarry

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• Searle Freedom Trust postdoctoral fellow at the Institute fo…
• Institute for Education Sciences Pre-Doctoral Fellow
• Spencer Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow