Coronavirus: 1.3 million students impacted by US schools closing across the country
More than 1.3 million K-12 students – from kindergarten to 12th grade – across the US have been impacted by school closings related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Globally, countries are announcing they're shutting down schools for weeks at a time as a way to prevent the spread of the novel virus.
Education Week has been keeping a tally of the K-12 school closures across the US since it started to impact different districts.
On Wednesday, more than one million students were impacted by school closures, according to the database. This number then rose to over 1.3 million students on Thursday as more and more schools closed their doors.
Washington state, specifically areas around Seattle, have been hit the hardest with 373 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 30 deaths.
This influenced the state to take drastic action to stop the spread of the virus, including shutting down some of its public schools. Seattle Public Schools is one district shutting down its schools for two weeks in response to the coronavirus.
Ohio also announced it would be closing all K-12 schools - which includes public, private, and charter - for three weeks starting on Monday. This closure is expected to last for three weeks and comes after the state confirmed five cases of the virus. Washington DC's school district will also close its K-12 schools starting Monday.
States like New York are avoiding completely closing down public schools because of the number of students who rely on them for a meal each day. Two schools in the Bronx, New York City, will be closed for 24 hours because of a suspected coronavirus outbreak. Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is hoping the schools will open back up once they're disinfected.
Around the world, nearly 377 million students have been impacted by the coronavirus shuttering their schools, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Besides K-12 schools closing in the US, universities are also finding their own way to handle the pandemic. More than 100 colleges and universities have shut down or switched to online classes, according to one list created by Bryan Alexander, who's on the faculty of Georgetown University.
In total, at least 21 states have partial closure in some or all of their K-12 schools.
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