What’s the Plan? How K-12 School Districts Are Preparing to Resume and Reopen

Below are school reopening policies that have been announced so far, based on plans published by over 300 U.S. K-12 districts. This data is refreshed on a regular basis as districts update and publish new plans.

How to navigate the Tableau visualization below (best viewed on a desktop or laptop web browser. If it doesn't appear, refresh the browser):

• Clicking on a policy category in the first chart will display related subcategories in the second chart.
• Clicking on a policy category or subcategory in the first or second chart will display a list of districts that have published relevant plans in the third chart.
• Clicking on a square in the third chart will display a link to the policy published by the district.

Data source: EdSurge & Social Context Labs, with support from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Salesforce.org and Tableau. This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Data are based on reopening plans shared on district websites and social media accounts, and are no more than one week old. (Note that there can be discrepancies between plans published by a district, and what it is actually doing.)

Our database covers 375 school districts across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. In selecting these districts, we prioritized diversity in the following categories: geography, poverty levels, COVID-19 infection rates, and presence of a reopening plan, among others. See complete methodology here.

We have spot-checked the categorization of district policies, but plans are changing rapidly and we have not reviewed every single characteristic for up-to-date accuracy. We invite readers to let us know via this form of updates to district policies in our database.

View past observations here.

How are schools preparing students and teachers for the fall? What patterns have emerged in district reopening plans? How are leaders balancing safety and instructional priorities? Simply put: What will school look like? Here are some trends and profiles.

Our peers and other stakeholders in the education community are also keeping a close eye on what schools and districts are planning. Other efforts include:

• Johns Hopkins University researchers have launched a School Reopening Policy Tracker that provides real-time analysis of state-level guidance.
• The Center for Reinventing Public Education, a project led by University of Washington researchers, is also tracking district reopening plans as they are published.
• The Parabola Project, a partnership between Ariadne Labs and The Learning Accelerator, offers education leaders tools and strategies to minimize health risks while maximizing learning when considering reopening schools.