There is substantial concern about the extent to which in-person K-12 schooling may increase the spread of COVID-19, both within schools and their wider communities. As of late autumn, 2020, school systems around the nation have been in flux. Many districts – and in particular large, urban districts – have been for the most part operating remotely since March of 2020 (Meckler & Strauss, 2020). In other districts, many students have been learning in-person at least a portion of the time since the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year (Sawchuk, 2020). As COVID infection rates reach unprecedented levels across the United States (Hanna & Wolfe, 2020), many state and local education policymakers are shuttering school buildings in favor of remote learning while others are making plans to remain in-person or to open buildings for in-person learning (Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, 2020; Sawchuk & Gewertz, 2020).1

As policymakers consider whether and how to open school buildings for in-person instruction or shift to remote learning, they are forced to balance fears about COVID risk with the potential for severe learning loss for school-age children (Dorn et al., 2020). There is a growing concern that remote schooling is not working well for students in general, and in particular for students who have been traditionally underserved by the public school system: Black, Latino, and low-income students, as well as students with disabilities (Agostinelli et al., 2020; Dorn et al., 2020). These concerns are beginning to be borne out in the literature: Evidence of learning loss is apparent across the country and in other countries where schools closed (Donaldson, 2020; Kuhfeld, Soland, Tarasawa, Johnson, Ruzek, & Liu, 2020a).2 There are also concerns about the impact of school closures on the economy as parents—and women in particular—are forced to reduce work hours to provide childcare and support remote learning (Green et al., 2020; Miller, 2020).