School District Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Round 3, Plans for a Remote Finish

This report, which is the third in the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI's) "School District Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic" series, provides an update on the state of the nation's schools using the newest wave of COVID-19 Education Response Longitudinal Survey (C-ERLS) data. It describes how the nation's public school system has changed from late March to mid-April, when COVID-19 brought much of the country to a screeching halt. Results show: (1) by mid-April, more than four in five schools offered some type of remote instruction, roughly double the share of schools that offered remote instruction 18 days earlier. More than half of all public schools began offering remote instruction within two weeks after building closures took effect; (2) Strong majorities of schools provide meal services (94 percent), devices to students at home (57 percent), and help accessing the internet (62 percent); and (3) Sixteen percent of schools are in districts that have plans to tentatively reopen buildings during the current school year. [For "School District Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Round 2, Districts Are up and Running," see ED606201.]