The focus has all been on colleges and universities announcing that they're closing face-face-instruction for the month/quarter/semester but we're scrambling trying to find something that works for K-12 schools.
* Students at the college level can be counted on to self-study /to an
extent/ if you make accommodations and provide the resources they need
* Internet access can be taken for granted when dealing with college
students
* Colleges are largely beholden only unto themselves, a college typically
doesn't *actually* need to have students complete the curriculum
before x date because they can shuffle things around and make
provisions internally, whereas high school students taking
standardized exams, applying to colleges, etc. don't /necessarily/
have that luxury.
* Kids are slovenly and have poor hygiene,
* Schools need to factor in National School Breakfast/Lunch programs
and other welfare programs that absolutely rely on having all the kids
corralled in a single place for x hours a day
* Imagine the mess if suddenly every family without a stay-at-home parent
suddenly had to arrange for someone to watch their elementary school
student
* Pretty much all colleges/universities have *some* online component to
their education, even if it's just a portal where assignments can be
posted. A lot of schools have no such system in place whatsoever, and
now have to not only find such a solution but also train their faculty
on its use and migrate/import/create the virtual classrooms, etc.
The biggest issue is that we simply don't know how localized any school closures
would be or how long any closure would last. If we're the only ones to close our
HS, colleges won't be very accommodating to our juniors when they're applying in
the fall without having completed some class or the other. If we're the only HS
closing down, the CollegeBoard isn't going to reschedule any AP exams. For all
other grades, if a self-imposed closure is only a couple of weeks long, we can
just take an early and extended spring break, but if it's longer than that then
setting up some sort of distance learning is a must. But if it's shorter, then
there's no point in scrambling about trying to reach an at-best 60% coverage of
the curriculum with younger students that need considerable face-time to grasp
concepts and require more interactive lessons.
It's a very tough call all around.