A Year of COVID-19: What It Looked Like for Schools
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It started with the closure of a single high school in Washington state on Feb. 27, 2020.
A school employee’s relative had gotten sick and tested positive for the coronavirus. The school underwent a deep cleaning and reopened two days later.
One month later, nearly every school building in the United States was shut down, an unfathomable moment. Schools scrambled to stand up a remote learning program—some virtual, some by passing out packets of learning materials.
Most of us thought this disruption would last a few weeks, maybe a month.
Now, one year in, most of America’s schoolchildren still are not back in classrooms full-time, learning from teachers standing in front of them.
From the arrival of the coronavirus in the U.S. to the growing wave of teachers receiving their first doses of a vaccine, here’s a look at how a full year of living and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded.
Jan. 29, 2020: First U.S. cases emerge
There had only been five confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. when Education Week first reported on a handful of schools that were beginning to take precautions to limit their exposure to the virus.
Mid-February: Temporary school closures
Individual schools and districts begin temporary closings of a few days to allow for cleaning of their school buildings. Closings were concentrated in Washington state and New York.
Feb. 25: A CDC warning for schools
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns schools that they need to prepare for the coronavirus . “You should ask your children’s schools about their plans for school dismissals or school closures,” said Nancy Messonnier, a director at the CDC. “Ask about plans for teleschool.”
Feb. 27: Coronavirus scare prompts a school to shut down
The first school shuts down because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Bothell High School in Washington state closes for two days for disinfection after an employee’s relative gets sick and is tested for the coronavirus.
March 3: Schools balance closure with disruption
Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director at the CDC, tells lawmakers at a Senate committee hearing that while federal agencies provide “guidance” on this issue, ultimately the decisions about things like school closures are made at the local level. “You have this balance between, the earlier you act the more impact it can have in slowing the spread, and the enormous disruption we see with school closures,” she says.
March 5: Shift to distance learning begins
The shift to remote learning begins with the 24,000-student Northshore district in Washington state announcing that it will close and shift to online learning for up to 14 days. It’s the first real test of prolonged distance learning to rise out of the arrival of COVID-19 in American communities. Many districts won’t be ready.
March 11: Pandemic declared
The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic.
March 11: School district closures compound
By this time, more than 1 million students have been impacted by school closures, a number that would continue to grow. Here’s a look at students impacted:
March 12: The first state closes schools
Ohio becomes the first state to announce a statewide closing. “We have a responsibility to save lives,” Gov. Mike DeWine says on Twitter . “We could have waited to close schools, but based on advice from health experts, this is the time to do it.” It only takes one day for 15 other states to follow.
Mid-March: Schools keep essential services going
Schools scramble to provide essential services amid closures . “Many families rely on the breakfast and lunch that’s provided at school,” says Christy Fiala, the executive director of the Fremont Area United Way in Fremont, Neb. “Making sure that when schools close unexpectedly that [families have] access to food is important.”
March 16: 27 states and territories close their schools
At this point, 27 states and territories have issued orders or recommendations that all public schools cease in-person instruction and close school buildings. Here’s what those school closures looked like over time:
March 16: Most students impacted
By this time, more than half of all students in the U.S. have been impacted by school closures.
March 17: Kansas: students aren’t coming back this year
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announces that schools will not reopen during the 2019-20 school year . “The steps we’re announcing today will create the space we need at the state level ... so that we can get ahead of this threat and limit its long-term impact,” Kelly says. Kansas is the first state to close for the rest of the academic year. Many other states soon follow suit.
March 20: Schools begin to feel the loss
“She was really a bright star. She had this passion.” —Ernest Logan, the president of the American Federation of School Administrators, describing Dez-Ann Romain , a Brooklyn principal who died at the age of 36 from COVID-19.
- Related Story: ‘There Was a Better Fate for Her': 18-Year-Old Dies From Coronavirus
March 25: All U.S. public school buildings are closed
Idaho and The Department of Defense Education Activity are the last to close all their schools.
April 8: Teacher morale plummets
On March 25, 56 percent of teachers in a nationally representative survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center said that their morale level is lower than prior to the coronavirus pandemic. By April 8, that number will reach 66 percent.
April 17: More states close schools for the academic year
More than half of all U.S. public school students now are shut out of their buildings by the COVID-19 pandemic for the rest of the 2019-20 school year.
May 6: Nearly all states close schools for the academic year
Maryland becomes the last state to announce that none of its schools would reopen for the 2019-20 school year. Only two states (Wyoming and Montana) did not close their schools for the remainder of the year.
May 7: Teachers face a dilemma over health
“Most teachers care about the kids and their learning—this is a huge priority for us, but we’re also individuals and have our own health concerns. We didn’t sign up to be nurses on the front lines.” —Dawn, a math teacher with asthma, on the dilemma facing teachers who are at higher risk of COVID-19.
May 7: Remote learning becomes commonplace
By early May, 80 percent of teachers report interacting with the majority of their students daily or weekly.
May 7: Remote learning is already exhausting teachers
“I probably send 500 emails a week right now, and I have a headache every day by 4 p.m. from staring into my computer screen. But I am doing my best—we all are—and that is all anyone can ask.” —Katie Kenahan, a math department coordinator and 8th grade teacher in East Providence, R.I., describing her remote-teaching experience.
May 19: Students start to really miss school
“She’s like, it’s silly but I miss the school mashed potatoes."—Ampy Moreno, a mother from Union, N.J., describing her daughter’s experience adapting to remote learning.
May 25: A reckoning over racial justice
A police officer kills George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis, setting off a tidal wave of protest across the country against police brutality. Students are among those who take to the streets, and some see parallels in the inequalities that people of color face in the greater world within their own school buildings. Teachers and district leaders struggle to respond to one crisis on top of another, figuring out how to discuss the protests with their communities virtually.
June: Student mental health deteriorates
By the summer, it’s clear that the pandemic has already affected students’ mental health. Surveys show that kids are growing depressed and disconnected from school, and pandemic-related youth suicides send communities reeling. The problems will continue into fall and winter, as students continue to say that online learning is worse than going to school in person .
June: Pandemic learning exacerbates the ‘digital divide’
A Common Sense Media report highlights the scale of the much-discussed but difficult to quantify “digital divide”: as many as 16 million K-12 students and 400,000 teachers prior to the pandemic weren’t adequately connected at home for remote learning. Education advocates have been raising concerns about the digital divide for years, but the pandemic made it impossible to ignore, and efforts to get students connected have become widespread in the ensuing months.
July 7: Trump administration makes the case to reopen schools
President Trump hosts a White House summit featuring Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos decrying remote learning as inherently inferior to in-person instruction, and urging schools nationwide to fully reopen buildings as soon as possible. The comments mark a striking reversal of DeVos’ longstanding support for online learning and innovation in K-12 schools. A wide range of district leaders, teachers, and lawmakers balk at the Trump administration’s position , arguing that the federal government’s lack of clear public health guidance and investment in robust mitigation strategies made full-fledged in-person learning inherently unsafe.
In the internet age, the tendency to equate ‘education’ with ‘specific school buildings’ is going to be greatly diminished.
July 28: Teachers, unions push back
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says teacher strikes are an option to keep schools from reopening without what the union considers to be adequate safety measures in place. Later that day, Dr. Anthony Fauci tells teachers during a virtual town hall that they will be “part of the experiment” in reopening schools. Teachers are outraged, saying they didn’t sign up to be part of such an experiment.
Summer 2020: Parents left with few options
Anxious parents, worried that they may be looking at more months of remote learning without childcare options, start to form “learning pods.” The groups bring some certainty and relief to families unsure if their schools are going to open in person in the fall, but they also raise equity concerns: rich, white families will buy opportunities that low-income families and families of color won’t have access to.
Fall 2020: Back to school, but not really
Many parents and educators had hoped in the spring that the COVID-19 threat would diminish enough during the summer that school buildings could safely reopen. Instead, school leaders began acknowledging the reality that high levels of community spread would force many school buildings to remain closed as the new school year began.
Education Week tracked state decisions on opening and closing physical school buildings. At the start of the 2020-21 school year, 4 states required in-person instruction to be available in all or some grades.
And 74% of the 100 largest school districts chose remote learning only as their back-to-school instructional model, affecting over 9 million students.
September 23: At least 400 educators lost
Six months since the first known K-12 educator succumbed to the virus, at least 400 teachers, principals, bus drivers, custodians, paraprofessionals, coaches, superintendents, and other staff members have been lost to the pandemic.
- Related Story: Elegy for the Educators
October: Hybrid learning dominates
The majority of U.S. school districts are in hybrid learning mode , with a mixture of in-person and remote learning. The approaches to hybrid learning vary widely . Some schools allow students to choose between full-time in-person and full-time remote instruction. Some schools welcome groups of students in shifts two or three days a week. Even for school buildings with open doors, many students opt to stay home full-time and learn online, sometimes from a teacher who is in the physical classroom juggling in-person and remote students and navigating unusually large class sizes .
Late October: Educator morale is at its lowest point
Teacher, administrator, and hourly employee morale hit their lowest points since the EdWeek Research Center first started tracking this metric on March 25.
November 2: Research supports safe reopening
As evidence mounts showing that schools can operate safely with vigilant mitigation measures, pressure to reopen builds outside the political arena with leading public health experts like Dr. Ashish Jha saying “schools need to be bolder.”
November 7: Joe Biden elected president
Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.
“Everyone wants our schools to reopen,” Biden had said while campaigning . “The question is how to make it safe, how to make it stick. Forcing educators and students back into the classroom in areas where the infection rate is going up or remaining very high is just plain dangerous.”
November: A teacher mass exodus does not materialize
For months, the specter that the pandemic would drive teachers to quit en masse fueled anxieties that the profession would be drained of talent. But an Education Week data analysis , published on Nov. 17, paints a different, less dire picture. The urgent predictions that COVID-19 was fueling a national surge of teachers leaving the classroom could not be validated.
November 19: With infections on the rise, schools pivot again
After a pitched battle to reopen some of its school buildings in October, New York City is forced to shift back to a fully remote model after infection rates in the city cracked a key benchmark. It’s a blow to the overall push for broader school reopening, as other districts that had reopened also begin to pull back from in-person learning.
December 8: A reopening declaration
President-elect Joe Biden vows to open schools in the first 100 days of his presidency.
December 11: Vaccines become a beacon of hope
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues the first emergency use authorization for a vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.
End of December: Teachers start to get the shot
Teachers begin to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The Knox County health department in Indiana began vaccinating educators on Dec. 28.
January 6, 2021: The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol
Educators, many teaching remotely, had to decide whether and how to teach the violent, historical moment. In the end, most teachers didn’t address it with their students.
A day later, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos submits her resignation.
January 20: Biden becomes president
President Joe Biden is inaugurated.
The countdown begins on his promise to reopen schools in 100 days. Teacher vaccinations will be key to that goal, but in most states, teachers aren’t yet eligible to get the shot.
- Related Interactive: Where Teachers Are Eligible for the COVID-19 Vaccine
February 7: Reopening tensions mount
The Chicago Teachers Union reaches an agreement with the school district about how to reopen schools, avoiding a potential strike. In big cities across the country, teachers’ unions have pushed their districts to delay reopening until educators are vaccinated and safety measures are in place.
February: Teacher vaccinations ramp up
By Feb. 9, nearly a fifth of National Education Association members say they’ve been vaccinated, and another 18 percent say they’ve scheduled their shots.
Kentucky becomes the first state to finish the first round of teacher vaccinations. According to reports, about 70 percent of K-12 personnel in the state had agreed to take the vaccine.
February 21: Long-awaited CDC guidelines released
“I want to underscore that the safest way to open schools is to ensure that there is as little disease as possible in the community,” CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy said. “Thus, enabling schools to open and remain open is a shared responsibility.”
March 1: A new education secretary, with a daunting job ahead
The U.S. Senate confirms Miguel Cardona to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education, placing him in the role as the nation’s education system faces an unprecedented crisis.
March 1: A monumental loss to the field, and to thousands of families
As of March 1, 2021, at least 856 active and retired K-12 educators and personnel have died of COVID-19. Of those, 233 were active teachers.
- Related Story: 1 Swim Team, 3 COVID-19 Deaths: A Widow’s Story
March 2: A declaration on vaccinations
President Joe Biden directs states to prioritize educators for the coronavirus vaccine, saying that he’s using “the full authority of the federal government” to challenge them to get teachers and other school staff at least one dose by the end of this month.
Today, I am directing every state to prioritize educators for vaccination. We want every educator, school staff member, and child-care worker to receive at least one shot by the end of this month. It’s time to treat in-person learning like the essential service that it is. — President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2021
Stacey Decker, Deputy Managing Editor for Digital; Lesli A. Maxwell, Managing Editor; and Emma Patti Harris, Deputy Managing Editor, Visual and Immersive Experiences contributed to this article.
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Keeping schools open during COVID-19 is hard, but it can be done
Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, here’s what has to happen to maintain safe in-person learning, douglas n. harris douglas n. harris nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy , professor and chair, department of economics - tulane university.
January 11, 2022
As the new year begins—and the Omicron variant spreads—there has been much wrangling about school reopenings. Chicago Public Schools were one of the most prominent examples of districts going remote due to COVID-19 concerns, before returning to in-person instruction this week.
But the critical roles that schools play in our children’s lives— academically , socially , and emotionally —are also becoming more and more evident. Also, if schools take reasonable steps, there is some evidence that they can open safely , with limited health effects. It’s why some say that “schools should be the last to close and first to open.”
Why has this been so hard? The auto supply-chain problem is a useful analogy. By now, we’ve all seen how the prices of cars have gone through the roof . Used cars are sometimes selling for more than they were purchased for when they were new. This is because it’s been difficult for auto makers to produce new cars. Cars have thousands of parts. If only one part is missing, the car won’t work.
So it is with schools. If we want to reopen schools in-person—and I think we can and should in the vast majority of cases—then we have to start with the end in mind and work our way backward to figure out how to do it.
What has to happen for a school to open?
First, almost every one of the dozens or hundreds of people who work in the school has to come to work. If one or two teachers don’t show up, administrators or substitutes can step in, but there is an obvious problem if many teachers don’t show up on the same day. And it’s not just teachers, but the extensive support staff who are essential to making schools work. A missing bus driver means that a large share of students will be stranded. A missing janitor means that the bathrooms are a health hazard. A missing lunchroom helper means there might not be food and/or that teachers must step in and can’t eat or prepare for the next class.
Second, these decisions can’t be made at the last minute. If people don’t know in advance that schools are going to open, then they won’t be able to plan for it and be ready. But COVID-19 is almost designed to make planning difficult. The Omicron variant is spreading fast, and we are still learning about its health effects. There’s no way to know when a few teachers and staff might test positive, so there is constant uncertainty around whether schools can remain open.
Third, school staff with young children have their decisions interconnected with all the other day-care centers and other schools, which might also close. This creates a cascading effect. One closure can trigger others.
That’s the picture at the local school and district level. But state and local public health rules around COVID-19 could also change. This is as it should be—rules should be adjusted as new information comes in—but the fact that school reopening is interconnected with decisions by organizations outside of schools makes it harder. The advantage of local decision-making is that local conditions vary; the disadvantage is that it complicates coordination.
The fourth, and perhaps the most challenging issue of all is that, even when schools do open, many students will not show up for fear of catching COVID-19 themselves and/or passing it on to family members. Others will test positive. These students are going to fall behind unless they are served, and, for all of the above reasons, it’s hard to serve students in-person and remotely at the same time.
These challenges are also larger in public schools and in low-income areas where COVID-19 rates are more dependent on buses and school-provided food. Parent hesitancy is also greater in these areas, often for good reason, when the COVID-19 community spread is higher and health effects are worse. (This is partly why we found in our earlier research that local demographics were stronger predictors of school reopening than things like teacher unions.)
Opening schools during COVID-19 is hard. A thousand things have to go right. But we need to find a way. Schools really are critical for our children—who are falling further behind by the day, with a growing list of long-term repercussions.
What can be done?
With this outline of the challenge, the solutions become a bit clearer.
1) Hire extra back-up staff to prevent shortages. As the above analysis shows, problems will arise. On some days, a lot of staff won’t show up. But funds (including federal dollars) can be used to hire back-ups—and to pay them something even if school staffing needs end up being less than expected. To avoid having to raise base salaries and create longer-term financial problems, schools can also pay bonuses to attract these workers on a short-term basis.
2) States, especially governors, need to step up and play a stronger leadership role. When there is a large number of interconnected decisions, as is the situation here, decentralized decision-making to schools and districts isn’t going to end well. When one day care or school decides to close, this makes it harder for the others to stay open (e.g., because each one serves students whose parents work for other day cares and schools). There is also a psychological effect where one day-care closure makes it more likely that others will think to do the same. When this happens, each closure precipitates others, like falling dominoes.
To keep the first dominoes from falling, leadership and coordination are necessary. Governors are uniquely positioned for this. Governors can set expectations for the entire state—all schools and day cares. Also, the governor, along with state departments of health and education, can follow the governor’s lead and work to facilitate school access to PPE, tests, and vaccinations—still the key tools in the COVID-19 toolbox. Remarkably few states are even requiring masking in schools (and some are actually banning them). This lack of leadership is making it harder for schools to stay open or reopen if they close . Masking and testing are effective tools for preventing COVID-19 infection and for making people more comfortable in coming to school.
Some national leaders, especially leaders of teacher unions, can also play an important role in this. What could be useful is more governors standing up at the podium, hand in hand with teacher union heads, and having them both say, “Let’s find a way to open schools safely.” That may seem politically unlikely, given the hesitancy of many teachers to return, but it’s worth pointing out that part of what is making this so stressful for teachers is the lack of day care and broader coordination that this step could help address.
3) Set a clear expectation in advance that schools will open and have clear contingency plans. Again, this is much easier with state-level leadership, so that everyone has the same expectation and can plan for it in advance. There are also extreme conditions under which schools will have to close, and states and schools should be clear about what those are. That kind of transparency can also increase trust and make it easier to open when conditions allow.
4) Require COVID-19 testing and masking so that everyone is safer, and feels more comfortable, being in school. This makes it less likely that people will get sick, and more likely that hesitant teachers, support staff, and students will show up. Of course, this only works if state and federal governments have done their jobs to make PPE, tests, and vaccines widely available.
What about vaccine mandates? If society’s ever going to get out from under the COVID-19 cloud, we’ll eventually need to require the COVID-19 vaccine for all students and staff—as most schools have for almost a century with vaccines for measles, polio, and so on. My hometown of New Orleans was the first to impose this, and it’s not hard to see the benefits: It encourages vaccination and allows everyone to come to school safely.
In other places, it might be better to wait a bit, however. Though the vaccine is safe and effective, hesitancy is high enough in some places that a vaccine requirement at this stage would lead large numbers of students and staff to opt out. While it’s tempting to think, “That’s their problem,” it’s important to remember that parents are often making this decision on behalf of their children. Additionally, it’s a problem even for vaccinated students whose education would suffer from opt-outs. In the short run, staff opt-outs will make it harder for schools to serve students. In the long run, once all students return, opt-out students will have fallen behind and require extra attention. Whether required now or later, schools should encourage students and their families to get vaccinated now and hold vaccine drives to increase vaccination rates.
The school reopening decision is complicated, just like the auto industry’s supply-chain problem. But we also know what it takes to succeed—strong leadership, clear expectations, and strategic use of resources. While this might also seem too late, it appears that COVID-19 is going to be with us for another year or longer. Children need us to do better than we have so far.
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