School Experiences with COVID-19: March 2022

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) releases today the latest round of findings from the School Pulse Panel (SPP). These SPP data examine parental, staff, and student concerns for the 2021-2022 school year, the state of school food and nutrition programs, learning modes offered by schools, and COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including quarantine and masking. Findings include: Nearly 90 percent (89 percent) of public schools have heard concerns from staff about getting their students to meet the school year’s academic standards. Eighty-two percent of public schools have heard concerns from parents/guardians about getting their children to meet the school year’s academic standards. Fifty-two percent of public schools reported that they had experienced challenges with obtaining enough food, beverages, meal service supplies, or specific types of food for their school meals program. As of March 2022, 31 percent of public schools needed to quarantine one or more of their students because they had been potentially exposed to COVID-19, displayed COVID-19-like symptoms, or had tested positive for COVID-19. This represents a 58 percent decrease in the percentage of public schools that needed to quarantine students between February (74 percent) and March, and a 67 percent decrease from January (94 percent) to March. This is the fourth experimental data product from the School Pulse Panel. Experimental data products are innovative statistical products created using new data sources or methodologies. Experimental data may not meet all NCES quality standards but are of sufficient benefit to data users in the absence of other relevant products. NCES clearly identifies experimental data products upon their release. The data released today can be found at the IES dashboard at https://ies.ed.gov/schoolsurvey/