Facility Problems Forced Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. School Districts to Cancel School in 2024–25, GAO Finds

Facility problems forced nearly 1 in 5 U.S. public school districts to cancel school for at least one day during the 2024-25 school year, affecting about 2 million students and costing roughly 3.5 million student-learning days, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The report, “K-12 Education: Facility Issues Led About One in Five Districts to Cancel School in 2024-25, Affecting 2 Million Students,” was dated Sept. 9 and publicly released Monday. GAO estimated that 19% of public school districts had at least one school cancellation because of a facility issue. The figures are national estimates based on a nationally representative survey of public school districts conducted from Nov. 20, 2025, to Jan. 23, 2026, with a 62% weighted response rate, not a census of every closure. Districts most often cited plumbing emergencies, extreme indoor classroom temperatures and other building emergencies as the reasons schools had to close.

The report found the disruption went beyond full-school cancellations. About 47% of districts said they had chronic facility issues in at least one school that often disrupted learning. About 12% said they moved learning online in at least one school because of a facility problem, and about 10% said they had canceled classes that were never made up. In the examples collected by GAO, building conditions also changed what happened inside classrooms. A principal quoted in the report said overheated rooms meant students would “end up talking about the temperature instead of learning about math.” A teacher in the report said students told her the classroom was “so noisy that we can’t think.”

Districts also told GAO they often lack the money or capacity to stay ahead of repairs. Fifty-five percent said their most recent facilities budget was insufficient to meet their needs. District leaders most commonly pointed to high construction costs, cited by 82%, limited state formula funding for facilities, cited by 73%, and a low local tax base, cited by 55%. GAO also found that districts with limited capacity to do preventive maintenance had more chronic facility problems and more instructional disruptions.

The findings add a new measure of how school building problems are affecting instruction nationwide. In a 2020 report, GAO found that about 54% of districts needed to update or replace multiple building systems. The new report connects those conditions more directly to lost class time. GAO said research has linked modern, well-maintained school buildings and healthy indoor environments to better student performance and health, higher teacher retention and lower absenteeism.

District leaders told GAO that some strategies helped, including investing in preventive maintenance, careful facilities planning, using outside expertise and building community support for capital projects. Some also said certain state practices were useful, including dedicated revenue sources for facilities, incentives for preventive maintenance, adaptable building design plans and faster permitting.

Still, the report’s clearest finding is that school infrastructure problems are no longer just a maintenance concern. They are interrupting instruction at scale. In one district cited by GAO, classrooms hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit, forcing the school to cancel classes.