COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18-June 30, 2020

Abstract

Pre-emptive school closures are frontline community mitigation measures recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for implementation during severe pandemics. This study describes the spatiotemporal patterns of publicly announced school closures implemented in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and assesses how public K-12 districts adjusted their methods of education delivery and provision of subsidized meals. During February 18-June 30, 2020, we used daily systematic media searches to identify publicly announced COVID-19-related school closures lasting ≥1 day in the United States (US). We also collected statewide school closure policies from state government websites. Data on distance learning and subsidized meal programs were collected from a stratified sample of 600 school districts. The first COVID-19-associated school closure occurred on February 27, 2020 in Washington state. By March 30, 2020, all but one US public school districts were closed, representing the first-ever nearly synchronous nationwide closure of public K-12 schools in the US. Approximately 100,000 public schools were closed for ≥8 weeks because of COVID-19, affecting >50 million K-12 students. Of 600 districts sampled, the vast majority offered distance learning (91.0%) and continued provision of subsidized meal programs (78.8%) during the closures. Despite the sudden and prolonged nature of COVID-19-associated school closures, schools demonstrated flexibility by implementing distance learning and alternate methods to continue subsidized meal programs.

Fig 1. Coronavirus disease 2019-related public K-12 school district closures by county and date–United States.

(A) March 6, 2020; (B) March 13, 2020; (C) March 20, 2020; (D) March 27, 2020. Data Sources, Reference, & Notes: Data were collected via daily searches of publicly available online content. A standard set of search terms were used to identify COVID-19-related public school closures lasting ≥1 day. Official state-level health and education department websites, and school and district-level websites were also searched. The map shows the county-level data on closures for the academic year 2019–2020 for public K-12 school districts in which schools are physically closed to students for traditional on-site learning. School districts may have used distance learning to continue education from home. Because data are limited to information derived from publicly available closure announcements, some closures may have been missed depending on how they were reported and some information may not be complete or entirely accurate. Data are only collected for the 50 states and DC, are restricted to public K-12 school districts, and do not include private schools. Number of districts per county was estimated per data available from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data (https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/). Districts reporting 0 students were excluded. Yellow shade denotes the counties in which no public school districts have been identified. This is typically due to multiple counties being part of a single, consolidated school district, whereby the district is only reported in the county where the main office is located. Counties shown in white have no school district closures reported on that date.

Fig 2. Effective date of statewide coronavirus disease 2019 public K-12 school closure policies–United States, March 2020.

Data Sources, Reference, & Notes: Data were collected via daily searches of publicly available online content. A standard set of search terms were used to identify COVID-19-related public school closures lasting ≥1 day. Official state-level health and education department websites, and school and district-level websites were also searched. The map shows the effective date of state-level closure policies for the academic year 2019–2020 for public K-12 school districts in which schools are physically closed for students. School districts may be using distance learning to continue education from home. Orders and recommendations for statewide closure originated from state governors and/or state education departments.

Fig 3. Type of statewide coronavirus disease 2019 private K-12 school closure policies–United States, March–June 2020.

Data Sources, Reference, & Notes: Data were collected via daily searches of publicly available online content. A standard set of search terms were used to identify COVID-19-related school closures lasting ≥1 day. Official state-level health and education department websites were also searched. The map shows the type of state-level closure policies for the academic year 2019–2020 for private K-12 schools in which schools are physically closed for students. Schools may have used distance learning to continue education from home. Orders and recommendations for statewide closure originated from state governors and/or state education departments.