The COVID-19 pandemic affected families' decisions about whether and where to enroll their children in public schools. We have limited evidence to date, however, on how vulnerable sub-groups, such as those with disabilities and those qualifying for special education services, were impacted. In partnership with the Virginia Department of Education…

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented disruptions to school systems around the globe and Virginia's public school system was no exception. These disruptions likely impacted families' decisions about whether and where to enroll their children in public schools. However, many basic facts about how public school enrollment changed in the…

COVID-19 significantly impacted the educational and home environments for students throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia in ways that may have impacted student learning, as measured by standardized exams. We analyze statewide, student-level administrative and assessment data on the Standards of Learning (SOL) reading and math tests for the…

During the 2020-21 school year, COVID-19 forced Virginia's school divisions to adapt to unprecedented circumstances, which led many divisions to deviate from the typical five-day-a-week pre-pandemic school schedule with all students attending school in person each day. In-person learning is superior to remote learning in promoting student…

Public school enrollment dramatically decreased during the pandemic, but the patterns of decline and student movement across schools are not yet well understood. Using statewide student-level data from Virginia, we find pre-K-12 enrollment dropped by 4% between fall 2019 and the first post-pandemic fall of 2020. The changes were the largest in…