School responses in New Hampshire to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
As students returned to school for the 2021-2022 school year, states set a variety of policies on education and the COVID-19 pandemic, including how schools should open to in-person instruction and whether students and staff would be required to wear masks. By the end of the 2020-2021 school year, about 66% of students nationwide were in states that left closure decisions to schools or districts, 33% were in states with state-ordered in-person instruction, and 1% were in states with state-ordered regional school closures.[1][2] All 50 states closed schools to in-person instruction at some point during the 2019-2020 school year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
This article summarizes responses to the coronavirus in New Hampshire schools in the academic years ending in 2020, 2021, and 2022. You will find:
- A timeline of events by school year
- A nationwide summary of school mask and vaccine requirements in the 2021-2022 school year
- A summary of school reopening statuses in the 2020-2021 academic year
- A summary of school reopening statuses in the 2019-2020 academic year
Ballotpedia’s coverage of COVID-19 includes how federal, state, and local governments are responding, and how those responses are influencing election rules and operations, political campaigns, the economy, schools, and more.
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Timeline by school year
Below is a list of major events involving schools in New Hampshire during the coronavirus pandemic between 2019 and 2022, including school closings and openings, mask requirements, and the release of statewide operating guidance. Know of something we missed? Click here to email us and let us know.
2021-2022 school year
- Sept. 9, 2021: At the beginning of the school year, Burbio, a school data aggregator, reported no in-person schooling disruptions in New Hampshire.[3][4]
2020-2021 school year
- June 29, 2021: At the end of the school year, Burbio reported all schools were in-person in New Hampshire .[5][6]
- April 19, 2021: New Hampshire public schools had to offer full-time in-person instruction by April 19. Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said parents still had the option of requesting remote learning.[7]
- April 1, 2021: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) announced that all K-12 schools had to return students to full-time, in-person instruction by April 19. Sununu said parents would still have the option of requesting remote learning.[8]
- March 8, 2021: Schools in New Hampshire were required to begin providing at least two days of classroom instruction each week. Under the order, schools could switch to fully remote instruction for up to 48 hours without state approval. Gov. Chris Sununu (R) issued the requirement in a Feb. 19 order.[9]
- February 19, 2021: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) signed an executive order requiring schools to provide at least two days of classroom instruction per week starting March 8.[10]
- Sept. 10, 2020: At the beginning of the school year, Burbio reported about half of schools were in-person in New Hampshire .[11][12]
- August 13, 2020: Gov. Chris Sununu (R) outlined guidelines for combating community spread of coronavirus in schools. Evidence of transmission between classrooms and cohorts would be classified as an outbreak and would allow school officials to revert to remote learning for two weeks.[13]
- July 14, 2020: Sununu released guidance for reopening schools for the 2020-2021 school year. Sununu said that the plan was meant to give school districts local control over how they reopened. Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said that he expected students back in schools in September.[14]
2019-2020 school year
- April 16, 2020: Sununu closed schools for the remainder of the academic year. Prior to the announcement, schools were closed through May 1.[15]
- March 26, 2020: Sununu issued a stay-at-home order, extending the statewide school closure through May 1. Prior to the order, schools were scheduled to reopen on April 6.[16]
- March 15, 2020: Sununu issued an order closing all public schools for three weeks effective March 16, 2020.[17]
Mask and vaccine requirements in the 2021-2022 school year
Mask requirements in schools
As of August 1, 2022, no states had school mask requirements in effect. Forty-two states left mask requirements in schools up to local authorities. Seven states banned school mask requirements.
The table below shows statewide school mask requirement laws and orders in states with school mask requirements or school mask requirement bans in place at the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
Mask requirement orders | |||
---|---|---|---|
State | Ban or requirement? | Type of order | Date lifted or altered |
Arizona | Ban | Legislative action | N/A |
Arkansas | Ban | Legislative action | Sept. 30, 2021 - Suspended by court action |
California | Requirement | California Department of Public Health order | March 12, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
Connecticut | Requirement | Executive order | Feb. 28, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
Delaware | Requirement | Executive order | March 1, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
Florida | Ban | Executive order | N/A[18] |
Georgia | Ban | Legislative action | N/A |
Hawaii | Requirement | Executive order | Aug. 1, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
Illinois | Requirement | Illinois Department of Public Health order | Feb. 4, 2022 - Suspended by court action[19] |
Iowa | Ban | Legislative action | May 16, 2022 - Reinstated by court action[20] |
Kentucky | Requirement | Kentucky Board of Education order | Sept. 9, 2021 - Suspended by state law |
Louisiana | Requirement | Executive order | Feb. 16, 2022 - Lifted by executive action[21] |
Maryland | Requirement | Maryland State Board of Education order | March 1, 2022 - Lifted by executive action[22] |
Massachusetts | Requirement | Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education order | Feb. 28, 2022 - Lifted by executive action[23] |
Nevada | Requirement | Executive order | Feb. 10, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
New Jersey | Requirement | Executive order | March 7, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
New Mexico | Requirement | New Mexico Public Education Department order | Feb. 17, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
New York | Requirement | Executive order | March 3, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
Oklahoma | Ban | Executive order | N/A |
Oregon | Requirement | Oregon Health Authority and Department of Education order | March 12, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
Pennsylvania | Requirement | Pennsylvania Department of Health order | Dec. 10, 2021 - Suspended by court action |
Rhode Island | Requirement | Executive order | March 4, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
South Carolina | Ban | Legislative action | Sept. 28, 2021 - Temporarily suspended by court action |
Tennessee | Ban | Executive order | Dec. 10, 2021 - Suspended by court action |
Texas | Ban | Executive order | N/A[24] |
Utah | Ban | Legislative action | N/A |
Virginia | Ban | Legislative action | N/A |
Washington | Requirement | Washington State Department of Public Health order | March 12, 2022 - Lifted by executive action |
School mask requirements over time
School mask bans over time
Teacher and school employee vaccine requirements
Seven states had issued a statewide requirement for K-12 teachers and staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or receive regular coronavirus testing during the 2021-2022 school year. The table below shows teacher and staff vaccine requirement laws and orders in states that issued such policies during the 2021-2022 school year.
Vaccine requirement orders | |||
---|---|---|---|
State | Testing instead of vaccination allowed? | Type of order | Date effective |
California | Yes | California Department of Public Health order | Oct. 15, 2021 |
Connecticut | No | Executive order | Sept. 27, 2021 |
Delaware | Yes | Executive order | Nov. 1, 2021 |
Illinois | Yes | Executive order | Issued: Sept. 19, 2021 Suspended by court action on Feb. 4, 2022 |
New Jersey | Yes | Executive order | Oct. 18, 2021 |
New York | Yes | Executive order | Sept. 19, 2021 |
Oregon | No | Executive order | Oct. 18, 2021 |
Washington | No | Executive order | Oct. 18, 2021 |
Student vaccine requirements
On Oct. 1, 2021, California was the first state to announce a vaccine requirement for eligible students. Louisiana also announced a vaccine requirement for eligible students on Dec. 14, but then announced the state would be removing the coronavirus vaccine from the list of required immunizations in schools on May 18, 2022.
School reopenings and closures (2020-2021 academic year)
Initial school year operating plan
New Hampshire released an initial operating plan for the 2020-2021 school year on July 14, 2020. An analysis of this plan appeared in our Documenting America's Path to Recovery newsletter on August 10. The sections below include an analysis of the plan, the details of the plan, and reactions from officials to the plan.
The New Hampshire Department of Education released its school reopening guidance on July 14. Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said, “What we didn’t want to do at the state level is say, ‘You must adhere,’ and have those certain circumstances where it just wasn’t possible, and then those districts come back and say, ‘I guess we have to close; there’s no way to manage what you’ve mandated. That's the rigidity we have tried to remove from the system.”
New Hampshire does not have a statewide date for public schools to reopen. According to EdWeek, public schools in New Hampshire traditionally start the academic year in late August to early September, with the exact start date varying by district.
On March 15, Sununu ordered all schools in the state to transition to temporary remote instruction from March 16 to April 3. On April 16, Sununu closed schools for the remainder of the school year.
Context
New Hampshire has a divided government. The governor is a Republican, and Democrats have majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. The state has had a divided government since 2019. The following tables show public education statistics in New Hampshire, including a rank comparing it to the other 49 states. Rank one is the highest number of each figure, rank 50 is the lowest. All data comes from the Common Core of Data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics.
New Hampshire school metrics | ||
---|---|---|
Category | Figure | Rank |
Per pupil spending (16-17) | $17,043 | 11 |
Number of students (18-19) | 177,357 | 41 |
Number of teachers (Fall 2016) | 14,760 | 40 |
Number of public schools (18-19) | 494 | 45 |
Student:teacher ratio (18-19) | 12.2 | 46 |
Percent qualifying for free/reduced lunch (16-17) | 27.3% | 50 |
New Hampshire school revenue | ||
---|---|---|
Category | Figure | Rank |
Total revenue | $2,992,501,000 | 39 |
Federal revenue percent | 5.6% | 46 |
State revenue percent | 33.4% | 46 |
Local revenue percent | 61% | 2 |
Details
District reopening plans
Districts are responsible for developing their own specific reopening plans. The school reopening guidance allows each school district to make its own decision about when and how it will reopen. The guidance says, “This guide is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ document. Rather, it recognizes the varied local contexts of each school district and acknowledges that many districts may develop their own operational guidelines utilizing this document as their base of minimum requirements.”
In-person, hybrid, and online learning
The guidance includes some recommendations for online, in-person, and hybrid learning scenarios, but it does not require districts to follow them. The guidance says, “There is no single answer and the approach that a district takes will be a reflection of its individual community and community circumstances.”
The guidance included the following recommendations for preparing for dynamic instruction:
“ |
|
” |
Mask requirements
The guidance says, “Each district will need to make decisions regarding the use of cloth face coverings for students, educators and visitors to each facility that are specific to their community. Such determinations will be reflective of circumstances on the ground at any given time and will likely be fluid and change as those circumstance [sic] change.”
In-person health recommendations and requirements
The guidance recommends students, teachers, and staff stay six feet apart during instruction, use hand sanitizer, wash their hands, avoid using shared materials, and clean and disinfect desks and other equipment each day.
If a student, teacher, or staff member has or is suspected of having COVID-19, the guidance includes the following recommendations:
“ |
|
” |
The guidance recommends school districts consider serving “individually plated, boxed, or wrapped meals in the classroom instead of in a cafeteria,” staggering meal times, seating classroom groups together, arranging tables six feet apart, eating outdoors, and disinfecting tables.
Transportation and busing requirements and restrictions
The guidance includes the following recommendations for school transportation:
- Parent/Guardian Pick-Up and Drop-Off
“ |
|
” |
- Bus Transportation
“ |
|
” |
Responses
- According to New Hampshire Public Radio, Gorham superintendent David Backler “welcomed the state’s new guidance, saying it allowed North Country districts to resume school based on local conditions rather than infection rates in the southern tier.”
- Barrett Christina, director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, said, “While honoring local control is the New Hampshire tradition, consistency among school districts can help ease some of the public and parents’ concerns about reopening.”
- Megan Tuttle, president of the NEA-NH, said, “Somehow, when it comes to school children and educators, the Governor believes the virus will act so differently that students and staff don't need to wear masks, and social distance rules apply only if practical. We had hoped for a set of minimum safety standards for all schools to achieve before they were safe to reopen. Instead, we received 56 pages of 'shoulds' not 'shalls.' The fastest way to undo the remarkable progress New Hampshire has made against the virus is to allow these guidelines to define how we reopen our school."
Map of school closures
The map below shows the status of school reopenings and closures at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.
As of July 8, 2021, the status of school closures and reopenings was as follows:
- Two states (Delaware, Hawaii) and Washington, D.C. had state-ordered regional school closures, required closures for certain grade levels, or allowed hybrid instruction only.
- 2019-20 enrollment: 410,896 students (0.81% of students nationwide)
- Thirteen states had state-ordered in-person instruction.
- 2019-20 enrollment: 15,697,460 students (30.96% of students nationwide)
- One state (Arizona) had state-ordered in-person instruction for certain grades.
- 2019-20 enrollment: 1,152,586 students (2.27% of students nationwide)
- Thirty-four states left decisions to schools or districts.
- 2019-20 enrollment: 33,449,499 students (65.96% of students nationwide)
School reopenings and closures (2019-2020 academic year)
The map below shows the status of school reopenings and closures at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year.
- States closed to in-person instruction for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year: 48
- Number of public school students in states closed to in-person instruction for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year: 50,261,464
The chart below shows the first date schools in a state were closed to in-person instruction during the 2019-2020 academic year, divided by the political party of the governor.
School responses by state
To read about school responses to the coronavirus pandemic in other states, click one of the following links below:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
General resources
The chart below shows coronavirus statistics from countries across the world. The information is provided by Real Clear Politics.
Click the links below to explore official resources related to the coronavirus outbreak.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
- National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
- U.S. Department of Education
- World Health Organization
- Trends in Number of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in the US Reported to CDC, by State/Territory
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations, Our World in Data (Number of vaccines administered)
- Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker, New York Times (Progress of vaccine trials)
See also
- Documenting America's Path to Recovery
- School responses to the coronavirus pandemic by state (2021-2022 academic year)
- School responses to the coronavirus pandemic by state (2020-2021 academic year)
- New Hampshire’s responses to the coronavirus pandemic
- COVID-19 vaccine distribution by state
- Travel restrictions by state
- Federal government responses to the coronavirus pandemic
Footnotes
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "Number of operating public schools and districts, student membership, teachers, and pupil/teacher ratio, by state or jurisdiction: School year 2019–20," accessed September 10, 2021
- ↑ EducationWeek, "Map: Where Were Schools Required to Be Open for the 2020-21 School Year?," June 14, 2021
- ↑ To read more about Burbio's school disruption tracking, click here
- ↑ Burbio, "Burbio's K-12 School Opening Tracker," accessed August 27, 2021
- ↑ Burbio rated New Hampshire's in-person index at 100. To read more about Burbio's school opening tracker, click here. To read more about Burbio's methodology, click here.
- ↑ Burbio, "Burbio's K-12 School Opening Tracker," accessed Oct. 8, 2021
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- ↑ Burbio rated New Hampshire's in-person index between 40-60. To read more about Burbio's school opening tracker, click here. To read more about Burbio's methodology, click here.
- ↑ Burbio, "Burbio's K-12 School Opening Tracker," accessed Oct. 8, 2021
- ↑ WMUR, "Schools could switch to remote learning if COVID-19 outbreaks occur, governor says," August 13, 2020
- ↑ New Hampshire Union Leader, "Sununu lays down rules for school reopening," July 14, 2020
- ↑ Fosters, "NH schools directed to remain closed for rest of academic year," April 16, 2020
- ↑ Twitter, "Chris Sununu on March 26, 2020," accessed March 26, 2020
- ↑ New Hampshire Union Leader, "Sununu orders NH public schools closed; 13 cases of COVID-19 so far," March 16, 2020
- ↑ On Sept. 2, 2021 the ban was temporarily suspended by court action. An appeals court upheld the ban on Sept. 10.
- ↑ Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) ended the statewide school mask requirement on Feb. 28, 2022.
- ↑ On Sept. 13, 2021 the ban was temporarily suspended by court action for all schools. On Jan. 25, 2022, the ban was partially reinstated.
- ↑ Oct. 26, 2021 - School districts could be exempt from the school mask requirement if they followed CDC quarantine guidance
- ↑ Dec. 7, 2021 - School districts could be exempt from the school mask requirement if they met one of the three following criteria: 1) the county vaccination rate was 80% or higher, 2) 80% of school staff and students were vaccinated, or 3) COVID-19 transmission in the county was considered moderate or low for 14 straight days.
- ↑ Oct. 1 - Schools could become exempt from the school mask requirement when at least 80% of students were vaccinated
- ↑ On Nov. 10, 2021 the ban was suspended by court action. An appeals court upheld the ban on Dec. 1.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.