With their budgets decimated by the economic downturn, many school districts are wondering how they will pay for costly new cleaning procedures, health screenings and other safety measures for those reentering their schools for the first time since the pandemic shuttered them.

The price tag is expected to be enormous: The average-size district could pay as much as $1.8 million to reopen all of its school buildings under the new safety guidelines, according to a joint analysis by the Association of School Business Officials International and AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

“Districts are looking at significant cuts in their budget and wondering where the money will come from. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place, and the biggest fear is they’re going to be forced to open schools without the safety guidelines,” said Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, which advocates on behalf of the 14,000 superintendents in the United States.