Update: Now, 78% of Students Would Not Fully Reopen Their School

Last month, we surveyed 4,500 students in middle and high school and found that over two-thirds did not think their school should fully reopen.

Since then, officials in Florida, Alabama, and New York have ramped up calls for schools to reopen, in line with a similar narrative from the White House. But August also saw the country’s highest COVID-related deaths in a day.

Exactly one month later, on August 7th, we repeated our survey with to see how student opinions have changed.

The main result: Only 22% of students would fully reopen their school this fall.

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The above graphic summarizes the two sets of results in different tabs, “August” depicting our most recent survey ending on August 7th, 2020 and “July” showing our initial survey on July 7th.

Overall, the change shows a sharp turn away from full reopening and into a fully remote learning environment to start the year. Responses for a hybrid of in-person and online learning stayed roughly the same.

We saw a similar shift towards virtual learning in a strong majority of states as well. New Hampshire, Connecticut, and North Carolina saw a relative surge towards virtual learning, while Kansas, Utah, and Wisconsin leaned more this time towards fully reopening.

Ranked by highest percentage against reopening schools in August, here’s how each state changed between our two surveys. The arrow points to the most recent results.

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Here’s a focused look at responses from states whose officials have recently called to reopen their schools:

• Florida (886 survey respondents): 79% of students against full reopening (52% say virtual, 27% say hybrid)
• Georgia (101 respondents): 85% of students against full reopening (56% say virtual, 29% say hybrid)
• Texas (175 respondents): 77% of students against full reopening (47% say virtual, 30% say hybrid)
• New York (373 respondents): 77% of students against full reopening (42% say virtual, 35% say hybrid)
• California (793 respondents): 78% of students against full reopening (48% say virtual, 30% say hybrid)
• Alabama (53 respondents): 84% of students against full reopening (47% say virtual, 37% say hybrid)

We also re-asked the students opting against a full reopening what sort of protocols they would need to feel comfortable reopening their schools.

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The overall trend was a small but noticeable increase in the need for all of these suggestions. A requirement to wear masks had the highest increase, up 9% from last month.

This is an update from a previous survey. You can view the first survey here.