Eighty-Two Percent of Public Schools Indicated Having a Written Plan to Handle a Pandemic Disease in the 2022-23 School Year

Eighty-two percent of public schools indicated they had a written plan in place to handle a pandemic disease scenario, according to data released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical center within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which is a higher percentage than the 46 percent of public schools that indicated they had such plans during the 2017-18 school year on the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). Additionally, public schools commonly reported having a written plan in place for active shooter situations (96 percent), natural disasters (94 percent), and suicide threats or incidents (92 percent).  Key Findings: During November 2022, 99 percent of public schools offered in-person learning, 16 percent offered full-time remote learning, and 5 percent offered hybrid learning.   In November 2022, 30 percent of public schools reported having to quarantine students and 18 percent reported having to quarantine staff members.  Eighty-two percent of public schools indicated they had a written plan in place to deal with a pandemic disease scenario, a higher percentage than the 46 percent of public schools that indicated they had such plans during the 2017-18 school year on the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS).  During the 2022-23 school year, public schools have a variety of written plans in place that detail procedures to follow for emergency scenarios. These include active shooter situations (96 percent), natural disasters (94 percent), and suicide threats or incidents (92 percent).   The findings released today are from the School Pulse Panel, which is part of NCES’s innovative approach to delivering timely information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on public K–12 schools in the U.S. on topics such as teacher trainings, student discipline, school safety, security personnel, pandemic preparedness, learning mode offerings, and quarantine prevalence, as reported by school staff in U.S. public schools. This is the latest experimental data product from the School Pulse Panel. Data from this round were collected from 1,017 participating public schools between November 8 and November 22, 2022. 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 to justify release. NCES clearly identifies experimental data products upon their release.  The data released today can be found on the School Pulse Panel dashboard at https://ies.ed.gov/schoolsurvey/.