The Johns Hopkins eSchool+ Initiative has created the National and Index School District Mask & COVID-19 Vaccine Policy Tracker examining state and district level policies about masking in schools, COVID-19 vaccines for students and teachers, and COVID-19 services offered in the school setting. The tracker includes data from all 50 states, District of Columbia, Bureau of Indian Education, and major US territories (n=57), as well as 56 school districts selected from 20 states representing the lowest and highest poverty, as well as the largest school district in each state. This information is intended to be of use for education and public health policy stakeholders and researchers, teachers, school staff, and parents from across the country.
The tracker includes data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Bureau of Indian Education, and major US territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands) (n=57). For each state, we collected reopening documents from state department of education websites and coded documents that were published after July 26, 2021.
We analyzed 56 districts from a sub-sample of 20 states, which included two states randomly selected from each of 8 US geographic regions (see table below) as defined by U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, with the exception of the Southeast region where we randomly selected three given the number of states categorized in that region. We also added to our sample the four most populous states in the United States (New York, Florida, Texas, and California) for a total of 19 states and the District of Columbia (n=20).
Two of the states in our sample (Hawaii and the District of Columbia) have only one school district each. For the remaining states, we identified the maximum and minimum poverty district based on Small Area Income and Poverty Estimate (SAIPE) (see below) data and the largest district based on the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (see below), resulting in an analysis of three districts for these states, and a total eligible sample of 56 school districts. For each eligible school district, we collected district reopening documents from district websites and coded the documents that were published after July 26, 2021. For school districts that did not have any plans available as of September 2, 2021, we chose the next district in the list that fit the poverty level category we were looking at.
State K-12 Student Metrics: School-age Population, Estimated Poverty Rate, English Language Learner Data, and IDEA Participation data obtained from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
District K-12 Student Metrics: School-age Population, Estimated Poverty Rate, English Language Learner Data, and IDEA Participation data obtained from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA).
We collect publicly available information about COVID-19 and school operations during the 2021-22 school year from state, territory, and district departments of education websites, and news sources. Of note, we did not code Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief American Rescue Plans for this analysis. The tracker is updated at least weekly and reflects the most current information available from these sources at the time data was extracted. Sources for these data are shown in the tracker. Throughout the tracker, we use the term “teacher” to encompass both teachers and school staff.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2001). Characteristics of the 100 largest public elementary and secondary school districts in the United States: 2000-2001 [data set]. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/100_largest/table_app_a_1.asp
National Center for Education Statistics. (2020). List of 2020 digest tables [data set]. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/2020menu_tables.asp
Reardon, S. F., Ho, A. D., Shear, B. R., Fahle, E. M., Kalogrides, D., Jang, H., & Chavez, B. (2021). Stanford Education Data Archive (Version 4.1). Retrieved from http://purl.stanford.edu/db586ns4974
United States Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Program (SAIPE). (2020). 2019 poverty estimates for school districts [data set]. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2019/demo/saipe/2019-school-districts.html
To cite this work, use the following: Johns Hopkins University (2021) National and Index School District Mask & COVID-19 Vaccine Policy Tracker. Baltimore. MD: Johns Hopkins University.
We endeavor to provide accurate, up-to-date information for all states, territories, and index districts; however, we recognize that district and state plans are dynamic and some decisions may not be reflected in the publicly available information used to create this tracker. If you have questions or see information that needs updating, please let us know.