School Reopening Plans and Reported Cases of COVID in Schools

Like schools worldwide, schooling in Florida has changed drastically this year because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all Florida school districts reopened this year with an in-person option guided by local reopening plans that aimed to create safe learning environments. UF’s Education Policy Research Center tracked the development of these reopening plans as part of the Florida School Reopening Plans Database. Now that schools have reopened, this policy brief examines how characteristics of reopening plans relate to reported cases of COVID in schools through October 24th. The results in this brief, while correlational, suggest that practices including beginning the year entirely remote and requiring masks are related to lower COVID rates in schools.

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Policy Brief: Time to Implement: Florida School Reopening Plans Meet the Start of the School Year

This policy brief provides updated evidence on Florida school districts’ plans for the reopening of schools for the 2020 school year. Drawing on the third round of data collected as part of the UF Education Policy Research Center’s Florida School Reopening Plans Database, this policy brief documents reopening plans as of the end of August 2020. By the end of August, all districts had a reopening plan, and many had already begun the new school year. Almost 9 out of 10 districts provided a new digital learning option, while several began the year entirely remote. About half of districts statewide provided technology and support for internet access for remote students. This brief considers how reopening plans position school districts to respond to potential future outbreaks of COVID this fall. This is the last in a series of policy briefs that have tracked reopening plans over the last two months.

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