It's the first week of no school for Louisiana students. But plans are in the works for their education to continue despite the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
In hope of minimizing the disruption, officials are making plans for kids to learn at home.
"They're doing everything possible to create 'distant learning' environments," said New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. The mayor says each school will be in touch directly with families on how this will work because a lot of public school students in the New Orleans area do not have home Internet access.
"We recognize that only about 50 percent of our student body have access to Internet or technological devices at their homes," noted Jefferson Parish Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley. "We recognize that we'll have to have a paper-based component of that as well. We are developing that, we've been working on that for some time and we hope to go live with that probably within the next week."
St. Tammany Parish Schools superintendent Trey Folse says they know parents have a lot going on right now, so they don't want to overwhelm them.
"We're going to move slow and make decisions that are good for everyone involved and at the same time, being considerate of what a hardship this will be on our parents," said Folse.
Various school systems on both sides of the lake are also working to keep school lunches going, for kids who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Beginning today, several schools will be offering free ready-made ‘grab-n-go’ breakfasts and lunches to any enrolled student or parent of an enrolled student. The food will be available to students regardless if they are enrolled in that school offering the food.
Here is a list of schools offering free food to students:
Attention families: additional feeding sites for tomorrow have been added.Please visit https://t.co/3ZBFuopLWQ for the latest information on Community Feeding locations. pic.twitter.com/Q7FcUyPoZs
— NOLA Public Schools (@NOLAPSchools) March 16, 2020