School responses in New Hampshire to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

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Responses by state


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:

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.

This page is updated monthly, but our email is always open. We encourage you to share updates from local officials, policymakers, and campaigns in your community at editor@ballotpedia.org.


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

See also: School responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during the 2021-2022 academic year

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

See also: School responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during the 2021-2022 academic year

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

See also: School responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during the 2021-2022 academic year

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)

See also: School responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during the 2020-2021 academic year

Initial school year operating plan

See also: Documenting America's Path to Recovery: August 10, 2020

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:

“
  • Establishing a Student Learning Workgroup focused on determining instructional priorities for the 2020-21 school year.
  • Establishing a baseline understanding of student learning upon their return to school.
  • Developing student instruction plans that are responsive to individual student baseline data.
  • Establishing strategies to implement and monitor the student instruction plans.[25]
 ”

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:

“
  • Any person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should be reported immediately to public health by calling 603-271-4496 (after-hours call 603-271-5300 and ask for the public health nurse on call).
  • Public health will conduct a detailed investigation to identify people who may have been in “close contact” with a student or staff member diagnosed with COVID-19 during their infectious period. As part of the public health investigation, investigators seek to identify close contacts starting two days before the person became symptomatic or tested positive for COVID-19 (if asymptomatic).
  • “Close contact” for the purposes of the public health investigation in New Hampshire is defined as a person being within six feet of the individual diagnosed with COVID-19 during their infectious period for 10 minutes or longer. Depending on individual circumstances, and on a case-by-case basis, public health may identify other individuals considered at risk for exposure.
  • Any person who is identified as a close contact or at risk for exposure to COVID-19 based on the public health investigation will be required to quarantine for 14 days from their last day of exposure. Depending on the specific circumstances, this may involve quarantine of only specific individuals (e.g., those sitting next to a person with COVID-19 in a classroom), but could include whole classes (depending on degree or likelihood of close contact, classroom size, age of students, etc.); this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis by public health.[25]
 ”

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
“
    • Develop a strategy to try to keep at least six feet of social distancing during drop-off and pick-up, and so that students and parents/guardians from different groups do not interact.
    • Consider assigning different entrances/exits for students based on grade, if possible and safe to do so.
    • Avoid congregating outside the school before/after school. When dropped off, students should go directly through their classrooms and be checked in. Similarly, at the end of the day, school should manage the congregation of students while awaiting transportation.
    • Parents/guardians should stay in their cars while dropping-off or picking-up students. They should not enter the building unless necessary.[25]
 ”
  • Bus Transportation
“
  • Those providing transportation to education facilities should maximize space between riders. Students should sit facing forwards and not get up from their seat or exchange seats.
  • If possible, consider assigned seating on buses.
  • Student transportation should adhere to appropriate social-distancing of students while they are waiting prior to embarking and disembarking.
  • All non-driver staff supporting the transportation of students should wear a cloth face covering over their nose and mouth at all times while boarding, riding, and exiting the bus.
  • All bus drivers should wear a cloth face covering over their nose and mouth at all times while stopped and students are present on the bus, or while students are boarding/exiting the bus. Bus drivers should also wear a cloth face covering while driving, if safe to do so. If the cloth face covering causes obstruction of the driver’s view, or unsafe driving conditions, it can be removed, but in those circumstances, students should be at least six feet away from the bus-driver, or Department of Safety approved plastic barriers should be installed between seating areas and the bus driver.[25]
 ”

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)

See also: School responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during the 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:

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.


See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 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
  2. ↑ EducationWeek, "Map: Where Were Schools Required to Be Open for the 2020-21 School Year?," June 14, 2021
  3. ↑ To read more about Burbio's school disruption tracking, click here
  4. ↑ Burbio, "Burbio's K-12 School Opening Tracker," accessed August 27, 2021
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ Burbio, "Burbio's K-12 School Opening Tracker," accessed Oct. 8, 2021
  7. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named NH419
  8. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named NH41
  9. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named NH38
  10. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named NH219
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ Burbio, "Burbio's K-12 School Opening Tracker," accessed Oct. 8, 2021
  13. ↑ WMUR, "Schools could switch to remote learning if COVID-19 outbreaks occur, governor says," August 13, 2020
  14. ↑ New Hampshire Union Leader, "Sununu lays down rules for school reopening," July 14, 2020
  15. ↑ Fosters, "NH schools directed to remain closed for rest of academic year," April 16, 2020
  16. ↑ Twitter, "Chris Sununu on March 26, 2020," accessed March 26, 2020
  17. ↑ New Hampshire Union Leader, "Sununu orders NH public schools closed; 13 cases of COVID-19 so far," March 16, 2020
  18. ↑ On Sept. 2, 2021 the ban was temporarily suspended by court action. An appeals court upheld the ban on Sept. 10.
  19. ↑ Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) ended the statewide school mask requirement on Feb. 28, 2022.
  20. ↑ On Sept. 13, 2021 the ban was temporarily suspended by court action for all schools. On Jan. 25, 2022, the ban was partially reinstated.
  21. ↑ Oct. 26, 2021 - School districts could be exempt from the school mask requirement if they followed CDC quarantine guidance
  22. ↑ 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.
  23. ↑ Oct. 1 - Schools could become exempt from the school mask requirement when at least 80% of students were vaccinated
  24. ↑ On Nov. 10, 2021 the ban was suspended by court action. An appeals court upheld the ban on Dec. 1.
  25. ↑ 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.
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