Nevertheless, schools are being advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin planning now for possible interruptions, opening the door to a long-term gap between the haves and have nots in public education. While Congress has various proposals floating around for funding, and some states could be prompted to come up with more money for remote learning as a result of the crisis, the damage done to children’s educations could be lasting.

“I appreciate that we want to pivot really fast to technology, but we’ve got to first recognize that there are lots and lots of kids in this country who are not connected at home, and that’s a challenge,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who is credited with coining the term “homework gap,” told POLITICO. “And this experience really is a clarion call that we should start addressing the homework gap.”

The FCC’s E-rate program, the government’s largest educational technology program, helps connect the nation’s schools and libraries to broadband. Only 14 percent of K-12 classrooms had internet access when the program was established in 1996, and today, virtually all schools and libraries have internet access. But Rosenworcel said it’s “it is a challenge to identify how to expand this program right now to reach kids at home.”

If schools are dismissed, the CDC recommends they consider implementing e-learning programs and ways to deal with students potentially lacking access to computers and internet at home.

Given local control of schools, continuing education amid lengthy closures may look vastly different — and with varying degrees of equity — from place to place.

“They will rely on e-learning as much as possible, but they have to have a backup plan in place, which could include a more traditional presentation of textbooks, work packets, pen-and-paper-based academics that support learning in a way that makes it accessible for kids that don’t have internet at home,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, of AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

Plenty of schools in Florida likely will be able to cleanly shift to online learning, but there are pockets where the transition will be a struggle, said Vanessa Dennen, a professor of Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies at Florida State University’s College of Education. Coronavirus has the potential to set students back months and also could disrupt the state testing cycle, which is tied to critical grades awarded yearly to schools in the Sunshine State, she said.

“People are going to have to be patient,” Dennen said. “Not just now as people are figuring out what to do, but with the solution that’s offered to us.”

In Washington state, where numerous schools have closed, Northshore School District schools transitioned from classroom to online learning, offering computers and internet hotspots on loan to those who need it. Other schools are discussing take-home assignments, online options or just closing the schools entirely, according to Katy Payne, of the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“We have been very clear with school and district leadershipthat if educational services are provided to any students, then they need to be provided to all students equitably,” she wrote. “It’s our belief that for most districts, it won’t be possible to achieve this if they go all online overnight.”

The Office of Education in California’s Placer County — home to the state’s first coronavirus death — has discussed purchasing software to allow students to log-in to lessons online. But not every student has access to the internet or a computer.

“Those are barriers we’re going to have to figure out. But we would be remiss if we weren’t thinking a step or two ahead about how, in the case of some sort of school closure, we could still deliver instruction to kids,” said Superintendent Gayle Garbolino-Mojica.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond held a meeting with the state’s county superintendents in Sacramento on Monday, where access to broadband for disadvantaged students and those living in rural communities was a top concern, said Garbolino-Mojica.

Elsewhere in California, Elk Grove Unified School District, in Sacramento County, is closed this week after a student’s family was quarantined for the virus. There, 54 percent of the district’s 64,000 students receive free or reduced-price lunch.

“That’s one of many reasons that web-based instruction is no substitute for actual school,” school board member Nancy Chaires Espinoza said about concerns of student access to internet and computers.

Beyond that, the district would have to develop a system that could support all students. Elk Grove currently operates a Virtual Academy that offers online courses to any student up to eighth grade, but that won’t work in the case of broader, long-term closures.

“Online courses don’t even exist to cover the breadth of our course catalog,” Espinoza said. “In order to allow students to jump in mid-course, they would need to align to our curricula, and teachers would need to be trained in their use. Any new duties for teachers would be subject to bargaining.”

Even if communities have access to high-speed internet, low-income households may not be able to afford it. The Trump administration has chipped away at one Obama-era initiative expanding the FCC’s Lifeline program to subsidize broadband for low-income Americans.

Stephanie Hoopes, national director of the New Jersey-based United For ALICE, said more than a quarter of the New Jersey households that don’t have internet access are struggling financially.

“They aren’t earning enough to afford that basic household survival budget,” said Hoopes. “Internet access might be something you forgo to try and get food on the table.”

Low-income families often use local libraries for internet service, she said, but that won’t help if people are asked to reduce contact with others.

Eileen Shafer, superintendent of Paterson Public Schools — one of the largest districts in New Jersey — told POLITICO her students come from families of varying socioeconomic backgrounds and many don’t have internet access. Schools in her district will be surveying all of their families to determine who has access to WiFi and the requisite devices. They have also begun to draft lessons and make paper copies of assignments to send home with students this week.

Online resources are a “stopgap measure” and those tools aren’t always available in every district, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten wrote in a March 5 letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. In the event of lengthy closures, Weingarten recommended alternatives such as telephone trees, mailed lessons and assignments, and instruction via local radio or TV stations.

Angela Morabito, a Department of Education spokesperson, said decisions will be made locally. Funds under Title IV-Part A of ESEA funds may be used to advance or expand distance learning.

“State and local education authorities know their students the best, and we trust them to make decisions about if, and how, distance learning will take place,” she said in a statement to POLITICO.

Most U.S. schools can be expected to treat coronavirus closures like a snowstorm, burning up built-in days and then working with the school board to determine how to make up additional days, Bob Farrace, of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, wrote in an email. Schools need policies in place to count e-learning as school days, he wrote. And they still don’t have good answers that can be applied universally to questions about the homework gap or how students with special needs would participate.

“I don’t see how districts can effectively construct this aircraft in mid-flight,” Farrace wrote. “Remote learning requires a lot of planning and preparation to do well. ... I expect coronavirus will be one more impetus to prepare for remote learning in the future.”

A bipartisan bill by Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) would allow the E-Rate program to support wireless internet service on school buses, which could help kids in rural areas.

“I’ve seen those school buses in rural California, rural New Mexico, and they’re life changing for these kids,” Rosenworcel said. “They turn their ride time into connected time for homework.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he’s pushing new legislation to create a homework gap trust fund.

Another bill by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) would create a $100 million grant program for schools, libraries, U.S. territories and federally recognized Native American tribes to buy mobile hotspots for students.

Rosenworcel said she expects those bills to get more attention in the coming weeks. Schools should also survey students to identify the scope of the connectivity problem, she said.

“There’s a lot of opportunity associated with migrating some of these activities online, but it’s important to pause and ask, ‘Is everyone connected?’ first,” she said.

Carly Sitrin, Mackenzie Mays and Andrew Atterbury contributed to this report.