What School Reopening Looks Like Around the World

By Jaclyn Borowski — May 07, 2020 1 min read

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The majority of school buildings in the United States will remain closed for the rest of the school year as the coronavirus continues to spread. But school leaders have already begun to imagine and plan for the fall when students will return for the new school year in a world still struggling with the pandemic. Here’s a look at how other countries have addressed the challenges of reopening schools in this new reality.

BELARUS

CHINA

Students wearing protective face masks to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus are reflected on a monitor screen showing their body temperatures as they arrive at a high school in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, Wednesday, May 6, 2020.
Chinatopix via AP

Senior students returned to classes on Wednesday in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, after no new cases or deaths were reported from the outbreak that had prompted a 76-day quarantine in the city of 11 million.
Chinatopix via AP

A female student wearing a protective face mask, checks the temperature of her classmates at a high school in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, Wednesday, May 6, 2020.
Chinatopix via AP

FRANCE

Blue stickers showing a safe distance of at least one meter are displayed on the floor ahead of a visit of the French President Macron at the Pierre Ronsard elementary school on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, in Poissy, outside Paris. Starting from May 11, all French businesses will be allowed to resume activity and schools will start gradually reopening.
Ian Langsdon/Pool via AP

A sign asking children to respect a safe distance of at least one meter is displayed on the floor ahead of a visit of the French President Macron at the Pierre Ronsard elementary school.
Ian Langsdon/Pool via AP

Hand sanitizer is available for schoolchildren during the class as part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Pierre Ronsard elementary school.
Ian Langsdon/Pool via AP

A teacher wearing a mask works with children ahead of a visit of the French President Macron at the Pierre Ronsard elementary.
Ian Langsdon/Pool via AP

GERMANY

A student gets her hand disinfected as she enters the school building of the Q2 upper school of the Heinrich von Gagern Gymnasium in Frankfurt, Germany, April 27, 2020. Six weeks after the corona-related school closures in Hesse, classes are starting up again. Initially, around 110,000 pupils from the final year classes will be returning to their schools.
Anne Dedert/DPA via AP

Students of a 4th grade walk at a distance on stairs to their classrooms in the Goldbeck Schoo in Hamburg, Germany, Monday, May 4, 2020. On Monday, lessons began again for more classes at the Hamburg schools, and the fourth graders returned to the primary schools.
Christian Charisius/DPA via AP

Schoolgirls observe the rules of social distancing on the playground of the Goldbeck School in Hamburg, Germany, Monday, May 4, 2020.
Christian Charisius/DPA via AP

MADAGASCAR

NORWAY

VIETNAM

One of the exceptions to school closures in the U.S. is MONTANA, where schools’ opening status varies by district. Willow Creek School, located 40 miles outside Bozeman, reopened this week to finish out the final two and a half weeks of the school year. School principal Bonnie Lower, also the district’s superintendent, greeted students at the door, where she checked their temperatures.