Federal Photos

What School Reopening Looks Like Around the World

By Jaclyn Borowski — May 07, 2020 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

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

School children play football at their school sports facilities in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, April 20, 2020. Schools reopened Monday in Belarus following an extended spring break, but authorities allowed parents to keep their children at home even though the country specifically steered clear of closures and restrictions on public movement during the coronavirus pandemic.

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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
Hand sanitizer is available for schoolchildren during the class as part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Pierre Ronsard elementary school.
A teacher wearing a mask works with children ahead of a visit of the French President Macron at the Pierre Ronsard elementary.

GERMANY

Students prepare for end-of-year examinations at the Joseph Koenig Grammar School in Haltern am See, Germany, Thursday, April 23, 2020. Almost six weeks after the closure of schools in North Rhine-Westphalia due to the coronavirus crisis, many of them are now opening their doors again for the first time for thousands of exam candidates.
Students wearing face masks during exam preparation for the Abitur at the JenaPlan School in Jena, Germany, Monday, April 27, 2020. After a compulsory coronavirus break of several weeks, the schools reopened for high school graduates in the federal state of Thuringia.
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.
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.
Schoolgirls observe the rules of social distancing on the playground of the Goldbeck School in Hamburg, Germany, Monday, May 4, 2020.

MADAGASCAR

Masked students sit in their class, after being given a herbal extract believed to protect from COVID-19, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Thursday, April 23, 2020. Schools were reopened after being closed for a month due to the spread of coronavirus. Students have to drink the extract as schools resume classes where they now are seated one to a desk instead of two, for social distancing.

NORWAY

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg, center, learns a greeting technique by students Celine Busk, left and Rim Daniel Abraham, during her visit to Ellingsrudasen school in Oslo, Norway, Monday, April 27, 2020. Schools reopened for first through fourth grades in Norway after six weeks of closure, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Vikasen school in Trondheim, Norway, as schools opened their doors on Monday, April 27, 2020. All students are divided into groups, must bring their own school equipment, and they are trained to stay one meter away from fellow pupils.

VIETNAM

A student is scanned for temperature before entering Dinh Cong secondary school in Hanoi, Vietnam Monday, May 4, 2020. Students across Vietnam return to school after three months of studying online due to school closure to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Students wearing masks attend a class in Dinh Cong secondary school in Hanoi, Vietnam Monday, May 4, 2020.

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.

Principal and District Superintendent Bonnie Lower takes the temperature of a student at Willow Creek School as the school reopened, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Willow Creek, Mont. The school opened its doors to a couple of dozen students Thursday to finish out the final two and a half weeks of the school year.
A Willow Creek School teacher welcomes students back to class as the school reopened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Willow Creek, Mont.
A mother drops off her children at Willow Creek School as the school reopened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Willow Creek, Mont.
One of the two bus drivers for Willow Creek School wears a mask as he drops off students as the school reopened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Willow Creek, Mont. The other bus driver also wore a mask.
Principal and District Superintendent Bonnie Lower takes the temperature of a student at Willow Creek School as the school reopened, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Willow Creek, Mont.

A version of this article first appeared in the Full Frame blog.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Rethinking STEM Assessment: Strategies for Administrators
School and district leaders will explore strategies to enhance STEM assessment practices across their district, within schools and classrooms.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
Federal Webinar Keeping Up with the Trump Administration's Latest K-12 Moves: Subscriber-Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.
Artificial Intelligence Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: Math & Technology: Finding the Recipe for Student Success
How should we balance AI & math instruction? Join our discussion on preparing future-ready students.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Trump Admin. Adds Project 2025 Author to Education Department Staff
The appointment comes as Trump has already begun to embrace plans outlined in the controversial 900-page conservative policy agenda.
4 min read
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. The Trump administration has added the author of the conservative policy document's chapter on education to the U.S. Department of Education's staff.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Pauses Ed. Dept. Layoffs After Judge's Order
The U.S. Department of Education is slowly complying with a federal court order to reinstate staff.
3 min read
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the office of general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025, the last day of work for hundreds of agency employees. The Trump administration has had to bump back the day it planned to stop paying laid-off staff.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Tutoring, After-School, and Other Student Services at Risk as Trump Cuts AmeriCorps
Deep cuts to programs across the federal government have left students without programming they'd come to count on.
8 min read
Members of the City Year program work at Isaac Newton Middle School for Math and Science in East Harlem during the MLK Day of Service on Jan. 20, 2025, in New York City.
Members of the City Year program work at Isaac Newton Middle School for Math and Science in East Harlem during the MLK Day of Service on Jan. 20, 2025, in New York City. City Year places AmeriCorps volunteers in underserved schools, but cuts to the federal service agency have led City Year to scale back some of its AmeriCorps volunteer-powered programs.
Courtesy of City Year New York
Federal Republicans Press Top Ed. Dept. Nominees to Commit to Trump's Agenda
Penny Schwinn and Kimberly Richey appeared before lawmakers for leadership in the department.
6 min read
Deputy Secretary of Education nominee Penny Schwinn, left, and Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights nominee Kimberly Richey prior to testifying before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee about their nominations for the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., on June 5, 2025.
Penny Schwinn, left, and Kimberly Richey speak prior to testifying before the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee in Washington on June 5, 2025. Schwinn is President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. Richey is Trump's nominee to lead the department's office for civil rights.
Jason Andrew for Education Week