The Urgency and Challenge of Opening K-12 Schools in the Fall of 2020

The Urgency and Challenge of Opening K-12 Schools in the Fall of 2020The sudden closure of kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) schools nationwide this spring likely helped to avert a medical catastrophe from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.This decisive step, however, is castingalongshadow.BythetimetheschoolyearendsinJune, more than 55 million US children will have missed months of in-class instruction. 1 The educational effect to date represents only one dimension of the harm to children.More than 20 million children rely on school breakfast or lunch; surveys now indicate that 1 in 5 mothers with children younger than 12 years old report that their children are going hungry. 2 Millions of children have lost access to health services through school-based health centers.There are major divides by race/ethnicity, geography, and economic class in access to home computers and high-speed internet.3 When prolonged school closures are combined with summer break, some children may to fall behind normal academic growth by as much as a year in mathematics.4 The "COVID slide" will likely be greatest among those students who are already at educational and social risk.Children with significant learning disabilities may regress without in-person instruction.In addition, school