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When schools reopen in the fall, they will look very different than the schools children left in the spring. There will likely be masks, temperature checks and extra space between desks. Nearly 1 out of 5 teachers may not be able to return to school buildings. And looming over schools will be the potential for additional closures forcing students back to remote learning. This new Blueprint for Back to School lays out the issues leaders need to address in these next four months. It is a product reflecting the thinking of 21 former state education chiefs, federal policymakers (spanning the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations), district superintendents and charter school leaders.

Many states are leaving decisions about how to continue instruction during school closures up to districts. Digital Promise and The Education Trust partnered to compile the following questions to guide equity advocates and district leaders as they engage in conversations about ensuring that our most vulnerable students have equitable access to distance learning, both now and for however long school buildings are shuttered. Depending on public health guidance, distance learning may be needed for the summer and parts of the next school year. In this guide, we share ideas that advocates and district leaders can consider when planning for how to continue teaching and supporting students, based on what other states and districts have begun to do.

Beatriz Morales, who only speaks Spanish, has been trying to teach her first grade daughter how to read in English ever since schools closed and Chicago Public Schools rolled out remote learning. "My English is upside down, but I try to be there for my little girl," Morales said in Spanish. Her two children go to Seward Elementary on the South Side and are also learning English. "We try to figure out the pronunciation together." When Morales needs help with pronunciation, she asks her son for guidance. He’s a third grader who also needs help with English. She pretends to be in control so her kids don’t lose confidence, but she knows they are falling behind.

Some private schools provide online luxury learning during the pandemic. As many public schools struggle to adjust, the nation’s educational gaps widen.

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Catalina Sol, executive director of La Clínica del Pueblo in Washington, D.C., about how the coronavirus is impacting the Latino community.

After 35 years as an early childhood teacher and advocate, MaryLou Beaver became the director of The Children’s Place and Parent Education Center in Concord, New Hampshire, last November. It’s a job she loves. The coronavirus could end all that, perhaps forever. Because of the spread of the virus, Beaver decided on March 13 to close the center, which is a nonprofit, for two days the following week to do a deep cleaning. She drove to six nearby stores that weekend to find just three gallons of bleach. By March 15, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu had ordered all public schools to close, though child care services were allowed to stay open. Beaver, with four of five staffers over age 60 and the youngest worker managing diabetes, decided staying open would be too risky.

For many K-12 educators, Zoom only entered the lexicon a few weeks ago, as the coronavirus outbreak shut down schools nationwide. Already, it's taken on a lot of baggage. Schools across the country are evaluating their engagement with Zoom, with decisions varying from place to place. Some districts have discouraged teachers from using it, or banned it altogether. Others are taking a more cautious approach, exploring its potential while sticking with tools they had already vetted more thoroughly prior to the nationwide shutdown.

A good part of Percy Deal's day is spent hauling water for his family and livestock in two 55-gallon barrels. So when he heard on the radio how often and for how long he was supposed to wash his hands to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, he was overwhelmed. Forty percent of the Navajo Nation doesn't have running water or indoor plumbing. Deal lives on Black Mesa in northeast Arizona next to a coal mine that shut down late last year. And mining did more than just drain the tribe's aquifer. Decades of uranium extraction have left generations of Navajos with major health problems. Adrian Lerma says these mines created conditions like autoimmune disorders that have left this community vulnerable to the coronavirus.

Neither author Mary Wagley Copp nor artist Munir D. Mohammed had ever worked on a children's book, but their first effort was snapped up by a major publisher, and advance reviews are enthusiastic about the story and illustrations. "Wherever I Go" is the tale of a family waiting in an African refugee camp and hoping for a "forever home."

Whitmore-Bolles Elementary School in Dearborn promptly locked down after classes were dismissed on March 11 following the announcement that a staff member had been exposed to COVID-19. Two days later, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a state-wide mandate by which all public, private and boarding schools must be shut down for at least three to four weeks. The impact was perhaps hardest felt by the teachers at Whitmore-Bolles who were locked out of their classrooms due to the massive cleaning and sanitizing effort that immediately went into action. Unable to access books, notes and other materials left in their classrooms, teachers relied on what they had available, on web-based materials and each other to assemble the virtual lesson plans.