The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how widespread emergencies can disrupt national education systems and schooling. To assist policy decision-making and monitoring, a rapid review of over 200 documents relating to education in emergencies (EiE) was conducted, with a specific focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the review is to support policymakers, largely in developing countries, to develop policies that promote education system resiliency with a focus on monitoring those policies. From the analysis and synthesis of evidence a new framework has been produced, which assists policymakers by organising the complexity of relevant concerns. This Policy Monitoring Framework (PMF) identifies three key factors – System, Teaching and learning, and Agents – and corresponding sub-factors, which collectively can be used to inform policy decisions. These factors are superimposed upon an emergency in education Preparedness-Response-Recovery cycle. The Policy Monitoring Framework provides a basis for a Policy Monitoring Tool, which in turn supports the planning of educational reforms and monitoring the status of the education system to build resilience.