Download the Full Policy Brief Here<\/a><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recent and ongoing COVID-19 global health pandemic has drastically altered the learning environment of K-12 students nationwide, resulting in disrupted education for students and rapidly evolving responses by the public education system. While difficult to prepare for a pandemic of this scale, this policy brief demonstrates that about a quarter of school districts and the majority of schools nationwide did not have response plans in place for an infectious disease pandemic prior to COVID-19. Furthermore, the prevalence of these plans had been on the decline for the past decade following a rapid increase between 2008 and 2010. This policy brief also demonstrates that, of potential crises examined in national surveys, response plans for pandemics or infectious diseases were among the least likely to exist compared to other disasters (i.e. natural disasters, school shootings, etc.). Finally, this brief highlights the fact that the majority of schools did not report having plans in place to ensure the continuity of education in the face of a disruption to in-person instruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"yoast_head":"\n
Policy Brief: School Preparedness Plans for Pandemics and Continuity of Education - Education Policy Research Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/06\/03\/policy-brief-school-preparedness-plans-for-pandemics-and-continuity-of-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Policy Brief: School Preparedness Plans for Pandemics and Continuity of Education - Education Policy Research Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The recent and ongoing COVID-19 global health pandemic has drastically altered the learning environment of K-12 students nationwide, resulting in disrupted education for students and rapidly evolving responses by the public education system. While difficult to prepare for a pandemic of this scale, this policy brief demonstrates that about a quarter of school districts and the majority of schools nationwide did not have response plans in place for an infectious disease pandemic prior to COVID-19. Furthermore, the prevalence of these plans had been on the decline for the past decade following a rapid increase between 2008 and 2010. This policy brief also demonstrates that, of potential crises examined in national surveys, response plans for pandemics or infectious diseases were among the least likely to exist compared to other disasters (i.e. natural disasters, school shootings, etc.). Finally, this brief highlights the fact that the majority of schools did not report having plans in place to ensure the continuity of education in the face of a disruption to in-person instruction.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/06\/03\/policy-brief-school-preparedness-plans-for-pandemics-and-continuity-of-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Education Policy Research Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-03T18:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-15T15:53:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/files\/2020\/01\/iStock-1059661816.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2125\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"kaylasharp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"kaylasharp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/06\/03\/policy-brief-school-preparedness-plans-for-pandemics-and-continuity-of-education\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/06\/03\/policy-brief-school-preparedness-plans-for-pandemics-and-continuity-of-education\/\",\"name\":\"Policy Brief: School Preparedness Plans for Pandemics and Continuity of Education - Education Policy Research Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-03T18:00:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-15T15:53:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/#\/schema\/person\/3b26b7408bd004d907118a3b4475ffb0\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/06\/03\/policy-brief-school-preparedness-plans-for-pandemics-and-continuity-of-education\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/\",\"name\":\"Education Policy Research Center\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/#\/schema\/person\/3b26b7408bd004d907118a3b4475ffb0\",\"name\":\"kaylasharp\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55660a7f5f14202c1e616bb635a704bf784df8c29c4bb9330d41c4bdffb01c0f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55660a7f5f14202c1e616bb635a704bf784df8c29c4bb9330d41c4bdffb01c0f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"kaylasharp\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/author\/kaylasharp\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Policy Brief: School Preparedness Plans for Pandemics and Continuity of Education - Education Policy Research Center","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/06\/03\/policy-brief-school-preparedness-plans-for-pandemics-and-continuity-of-education\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Policy Brief: School Preparedness Plans for Pandemics and Continuity of Education - Education Policy Research Center","og_description":"The recent and ongoing COVID-19 global health pandemic has drastically altered the learning environment of K-12 students nationwide, resulting in disrupted education for students and rapidly evolving responses by the public education system. 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<\/a>the learning environment of K-12 students nationwide, resulting in disrupted education for students and rapidly evolving responses by the public education system.\u00a0 While difficult to prepare for a pandemic of this scale, this policy brief demonstrates that about a quarter of school districts and the majority of schools nationwide did not have response plans in place for an infectious disease pandemic prior to COVID-19.\u00a0 Furthermore, the prevalence of these plans had been on the decline for the past decade following a rapid increase between 2008 and 2010.\u00a0 This policy brief also demonstrates that, of potential crises examined in national surveys, response plans for pandemics or infectious diseases were among the least likely to exist compared to other disasters (i.e. natural disasters, school shootings, etc.).\u00a0 Finally, this brief highlights the fact that the majority of schools did not report having plans in place to ensure the continuity of education in the face of a disruption to in-person instruction.<\/p>\n