K-12 School Reopening Trends

Where We Are Now

This week we saw a slowdown in school closures (the up-to-date map can be found at the top of our School Opening Tracker page in addition to the visual below) even as we did see the first examples of districts going virtual a second time.

Burbio School Opening Tracker-- With School Disruption Map Added

Burbio's School Mask Policy Tracker

Trends and Observations

• The pace of school closures slowed dramatically over the past week. We have now tracked 2,238 school closures across 561 districts (up from 549 last week) across 45 states (up from 43). As noted in last week's blog districts across the US have been rapidly iterating their quarantine and mitigation policies to reduce the number of exposed students and staff who need to be remote when exposed to someone with Covid-19. We also note the use of classroom and grade closures by schools to reduce disruption, as well as recently reported decline in Covid-19 community rates in parts of the Sun Belt that began school in August. Current cumulative closure map below:

Note:  Our school closure figures on the disruption map do not include closures related to Hurricane Ida, which affected Louisiana and New Jersey in particular. They reflect Covid 19 related closures only.  

• The following chart tracks "closure events' by week. An individual school closing counts as a "closure;" if an entire district closes, that would also count as one closure. We pick up closure events on a trailing basis and so the most recent week's figures will rise in the next report. That said, it is clear closures have slowed down over the course of the month. The average time a school closes has remained relatively constant at 7.3 days.

•  Even as school closures have dropped, we picked up instances of schools closing for a second time. Randolph County, GA schools returned to virtual last week after having initially gone virtual in August. In Kentucky Jenkins County schools closed to in-person in late August and have now gone back to virtual through October 8th.

• Mask mandates among the top 200 districts have reached a plateau. Here is the weekly trend since August:

•  We have begun tracking vaccine and testing requirements for schools across the US. To date, we have identified 61 districts of the Top 200 that require teacher and staff vaccinations.

• In news from around the U.S:

• In a widely reported story California became the first state to mandate vaccinations for eligible students once the vaccinations are fully approved by federal officials.
• We are noting a trend around vaccination requirements for high school athletes. In addition to New York City requiring vaccination, so does Washington, DC and Phoenix.. Further, the Massachusetts governing body for high school sports recommends vaccinations for athletes as does the state board in Pennsylvania.
• In Louisiana, the state education department eliminated the need to quarantine after Covid 19 exposure, triggering a public rift with state health authorities.
• In both Arizona and South Carolina, judges overturned state bans on mask mandates. In Illinois, at least one district is defying that state's mask mandate and may lose state recognition. This letter signed by over 70 district Superintendents in Illinois criticizes the Governor for usurping school district's local control by instituting mask, vaccine and other mandates.