Large Socio-Economic, Geographic, and Demographic Disparities Exist in Exposure to School Closures and Distance Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many school districts to turn to distance or at-home learning. Studies are emerging on the negative effects of distance learning on educational performance, but less is known about the socio-economic, geographic, and demographic characteristics of students exposed to distance-learning. We introduce a U.S. School Closure & Distance Learning Database that tracks in-person visits across more than 100,000 schools throughout 2020. The database, which we make publicly-accessible and update monthly, describes year-over-year change in in-person visits to each school throughout 2020 to estimate whether the school is engaged in distance learning. Our findings reveal that school closures from September to December 2020 are more common in schools with lower third-grade math scores and higher shares of students who are racial/ethnic minorities, who experience homelessness, are of limited English proficiency, and are eligible for free/reduced-price school lunch. The findings portend rising inequalities in learning outcomes.