Lessons for Closing Schools: Face the Challenge, Prioritize Students, Be Honest

Lake: A handful of proven, evidence-based guidelines to help minimize the pain and maximize the possibility that more kids will get a better education

Prompted by declining enrollment and the impending loss of federal pandemic relief funding, school districts nationwide are wrestling with whether to close schools — and, if so, how many. Seattle is weighing a plan to close a quarter of its elementary schools. Rochester, New York, voted last fall to shut 11 of its 45 schools. San Antonio recently closed 13, with two more slated to shut their doors soon.

School closures are hardly new, but two factors make the current wave different. First, shifts to homeschooling and private schools during the pandemic exacerbated the trend of declining urban enrollment. Second, the loss of pandemic relief funds (the so-called fiscal cliff) finally forced districts to find ways to save money.