Volume 30, Number 1—January 2024
Research
COVID-19–Related School Closures, United States, July 27, 2020–June 30, 2022
, Ferdous Jahan, Sarah Moreland1, Faruque Ahmed, and Amra Uzicanin
Table 2
Reasons for COVID-19–related K–12 school closure, United States, July 27, 2020–June 30, 2022*
| Reasons for school closure decision stated in closure announcement† | Total |
2020–21‡ |
2021–22‡ |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District | School | District | School | District | School | |||
| COVID-19–related closure | 3,443 | 7,441 | 1,528 | 4,794 | 1,915 | 2,647 | ||
| COVID-19 only | 85 (2.5) | 123 (1.7) | 43 (2.8) | 76 (1.6) | 42 (2.2) | 49 (1.9) | ||
| COVID-19 and specific reasons |
3,358 (97.5) |
7,318(98.3) |
1,485 (97.2) |
4,718 (98.4) |
1,873 (97.8) |
2,598 (98.1) |
||
| Transmission-related reasons | ||||||||
| Positive case | 1,845 (53.6) | 4,511 (60.6) | 724 (47.4) | 2,829 (59.0) | 1,121 (58.5) | 1,682 (61.5) | ||
| In student | 758 (22.0) | 1,412 (19.0) | 233 (15.2) | 651 (13.6) | 525 (27.4) | 761 (28.7) | ||
| In staff member | 763 (22.2) | 1,359 (18.3) | 226 (14.8) | 575 (12.0) | 537 (28.0) | 784 (29.6) | ||
| In household member§ | 15 (0.4) | 24 (0.3) | 11 (0.7) | 12 (0.3) | 4 (0.2) | 12 (0.5) | ||
| In visitor | 2 (0.1) | 0 | 2 (0.1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Suspected case | 78 (2.3) | 224 (3.0) | 64 (4.2) | 173 (3.6) | 14 (0.7) | 51 (1.9) | ||
| In student | 23 (0.7) | 70 (0.9) | 21 (1.4) | 48 (1.0) | 2 (0.1) | 22 (0.8) | ||
| In staff member | 33 (1.0) | 71 (1.0) | 27 (1.8) | 53 (1.1) | 6 (0.3) | 18 (0.7) | ||
| In household member§ | 0 | 5 (0.1) | 0 | 5 (0.1) | 0 | 0 | ||
| Increased student absenteeism | 515 (15.0) | 732 (9.8) | 56 (3.7) | 132 (2.8) | 459 (24.0) | 600 (31.3) | ||
| Increased staff absenteeism | 1,022 (29.7) | 1,955 (26.3) | 183 (12.0) | 536 (11.2) | 839 (43.8) | 1,419 (53.6) | ||
| Cluster or widespread transmission¶ | 1,096 (31.8) | 1,918 (25.8) | 727 (47.8) | 1,556 (32.5) | 369 (19.3) | 362 (13.7) | ||
| State or local guidance or mandate | 348 (10.1) | 1,146 (15.4) | 318 (20.8) | 1,091 (22.8) | 30 (1.6) | 55 (2.1) | ||
| To clean or disinfect# | 240 (7.0) | 682 (9.2) | 102 (6.7) | 562 (11.7) | 138 (7.2) | 120 (4.5) | ||
| Other** |
356 (10.3) |
750 (10.1) |
146 (9.6) |
532 (11.1) |
210 (11.0) |
218 (8.2) |
||
| Non–transmission-related reasons | ||||||||
| Vaccination of staff or students | 83 (2.4) | 56 (0.8) | 66 (4.3) | 49 (1.0) | 17 (0.9) | 7 (0.3) | ||
| Side effects of vaccination | 9 (0.3) | 18 (0.2) | 9 (0.6) | 18 (0.4) | 0 | 0 | ||
| Teacher shortage | 135 (3.9) | 158 (2.1) | 20 (1.3) | 26 (0.5) | 115 (6.0) | 132 (5.0) | ||
| Mental health | 158 (4.6) | 48 (0.6) | 0 | 0 | 158 (8.3) | 48 (1.8) | ||
| Other†† | 17 (0.5) | 32 (0.4) | 0 | 10 (0.2) | 17 (0.9) | 22(0.8) | ||
*Values are no. (%) except as indicated. †Reasons are recorded as stated in the school closure announcements. Categories are not mutually exclusive because a closure announcement may attribute the closure to >1 factor, there may be >1 announcement that contributes the closure to different factors, or both. ‡School year: 2020–21 (July 27, 2020–June 30, 2021), 2021–22 (August 1, 2021–June 30, 2022). §Of student or staff. ¶In the community. #Classrooms, buildings, and facilities **Other reasons were contact tracing, quarantine of students and staff, prevention of holiday-related surge, precautionary measure as a concern of community spread because of union wanting work stoppage, death of staff member, inability to find substitute teachers, transportation issues, critical lack of community resources (including contact tracers), testing, out of an abundance of caution, influenza or other respiratory virus-related or enteric virus-related illnesses, internet outage, facility issues, and noncompliance with governor’s executive orders regarding nonpharmaceutical interventions. ††Other reasons were staff protesting in-person learning, protest over mask policy, transportation issue, lack of resources, allowing time for testing, and work on the COVID-19 mitigation plan.
1Current affiliation: Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.