The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of American education. Many public schools were closed in 2020-2021, necessitating online education and implementation of social distancing guidelines. However, implementation was not uniform among school districts, creating ambiguity. Using the organization of disaster response theory as a framework, this qualitative descriptive study addressed gaps in the existing literature on teachers' perceptions of their public-school district's response to COVID-19. This study was guided by the following research question: How do K-12 public teachers describe their public-school district's response to COVID-19? To address this research question, 15 licensed and full-time teachers from a large school district in Florida were sampled and completed semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Four themes emerged from thematic analysis: (a) teachers describe technology readiness as the basis for the reactive emergency response to COVID-19; (b) teachers describe the response to COVID-19 to include obstacles to learning, health, and safety; (c) teachers described leadership as the basis for the effective practices of their district in response to COVID-19; and (d) teachers describe the need for teacher training to improve emergency response. Findings indicated a lack of preparation and inadequate teacher training as major challenges. Participants also provided recommendations for improvement, focusing on learning continuity among the students. Findings enhance what is known of teacher and educational leaders' perceptions of public school districts' response related to COVID-19 while providing recommendations that could advance educational leadership practice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]