CREATE’s School Shuttering and Equitable Educational Access Study is an exploratory, comparative case study of Midwestern school districts that have been dissolved by their state officials or threatened with shuttering. These school closure developments are intimately connected to contemporary state policies and interventions, including many conditions that predate the COVID-19 pandemic. They are also part of the historical fight for educational access, equity, and racial justice. As such, the SSEEAS (“sees”) study bridges historical and contemporary contexts to explore the roots, processes, and effects of permanent school and district closure. The study also examines political debate over these closures and analyzes community proposed alternatives that are designed to ensure students have high quality and equitable public education access.