69´«Ã½

Teaching Profession

Educators We Lost to COVID, 2020-2022

Some of the teachers, principals, coaches, counselors, and other staff members who died in the pandemic
April 03, 2020 | Updated: December 19, 2022 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

This page is no longer being updated. The last data update was on Dec. 19, 2022.

COVID-19 took —young and old, men and women, people of all backgrounds.

Among the educators we lost was a teacher who taught her students online the day before she died. Another was a school climate counselor at his alma mater who supported students struggling with behavior. Some of them had retired, but were still vividly remembered for their deep impact on students’ lives.

As of December 19, 2022—the final update of this memorial gallery—at least 1,308 active and retired K-12 educators and personnel had died of COVID-19. Of those, 451 were active teachers.

Our final recorded death—on Sept. 14, 2022—was teacher Jennifer Hawkins Mason, 61, who taught at Farmingville Elementary School in Ridgefield, Conn. The first death we documented was Rushia Stephens, a 65-year-old retired teacher in Atlanta, who died on March 19, 2020, right as the world was shutting down.

In this memorial, we documented many of the dedicated educators lost to their communities and to the field. It is not a comprehensive collection, as we relied on published obituaries, local news reports, and other verifiable sources to confirm the deaths. We know there are many deaths our gallery did not capture.

In addition to our own reporting and reader submissions, here are some other sources Education Week used to identify and/or confirm names to include in this gallery: , , , Google alerts and search of local media reports, , Lexis-Nexis, Twitter account, the , and the.

Click the tabs to see the educators we’ve lost to the coronavirus in past years. Please allow time for the galleries to fully load.

Related 69´«Ã½

Related Tags:

Vol. 39, Issue 37, Page 1

Published in Print: July 15, 2020, as Immeasurable Loss

Reporting: Lesli A. Maxwell
Design/Visualization: Emma Patti Harris

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
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
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
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

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

Read Next

Teaching Profession New Findings on Teacher Morale Highlight Ways to Make It Better
A new College Board survey on teacher morale echoes some previous findings. But it also highlights opportunities for schools to improve it.
4 min read
A student raises her hand to share her work with her teacher.
A student raises her hand to share her work with her teacher.
Allison Shelley for All4Ed
Teaching Profession Opinion Teacher Contracts Need to Change. And It’s Not Just About Money
If we want to retain effective teaches, we should increase teacher compensation—but we need to do it strategically.
Karen Hawley Miles & David Rosenberg
4 min read
Final Piece Of The Puzzle. Two people about to shake hands over trading a jigsaw puzzle piece needed for the solution.
iStock/Getty Images + Education Week
Teaching Profession The State of Teaching Teachers Say the Public Views Them Negatively
The perception coincides with teachers' low levels of job satisfaction.
2 min read
survey teachers static
via Canva
Teaching Profession Download Play Teacher TV Bingo and Spot All the Teacher Tropes
It's trope bingo; spot the common (and often annoying) mischaracterizations.
Image of bingo cards, a remote control, and a television.
via Canva