An estimated 21 million Americans lack a high-speed internet connection. More than 1 in 10 students report they don’t have a laptop or desktop at home. And the digital divide is even more prevalent in our most vulnerable communities. The Census Household Pulse Survey showed that, as of June, 15% of black students lacked reliable internet connectivity, and 21% lacked a device at home. Twenty-one percent of low-income children lack the connectivity needed to benefit from either online or hybrid learning.

That’s why it is urgent for Congress to use the next phase of fiscal relief to bridge this divide. Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey has proposed $4 billion for the E-rate program, which helps to connect low-income children at home. Republicans, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, have issued a Digital Equity Framework that calls on giving students access to broadband to complete their homework remotely as well as expanding broadband access to minority and low-income communities.

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On the same day of the White House forum, the nation saw a new single day record of COVID-19 cases and spiking infection numbers across 37 states over the past two weeks. States are busy preparing technical plans for schools, but may be missing the important health issues they must address in order to instill parental trust. Unless leaders quickly respond to these cautious parents, schools will open their doors but children will stay at home.

This disruption to the school year has created broad academic challenges for students, particularly those most vulnerable before the crisis occurred. Schools may need to extend the school day or year to help students catch up on lost instruction. Michigan should commit now to ensure their assessments are administered in the spring of 2021 to help identify students who need extra help and better target assistance to close learning gaps. They should also commit to providing the social and emotional learning practices needed to help students as they make their way through this new normal.

Recognizing these additional costs many low-income families are now facing, the U.S. Congress should go further in the cash benefit program and provide $1,000 per child. The benefit should have an income cap, $90,000 for singles and $180,000 for couples, so that it targets assistance to those who need it the most. And it should not be a one-time payment, but rather a monthly benefit with clear triggers, such as public-health emergency declarations and extended school closures, to continue the payments until this crisis has abated.

Congress should not wait until the crisis worsens, given the needs families are facing right now that they hadn’t even imagined just two weeks ago. This direct cash assistance could make the difference between a child continuing their studies or falling behind.

A number of strategies can be deployed to flatten the curve: washing hands, canceling mass gatherings, working from home, self-quarantining, avoiding crowds — and closing schools. No one single action is enough. They must be combined to provide a comprehensive approach to slow the spread. This article explores the role of school closures in flattening the curve.

In 2005, while serving as deputy policy director at the U.S. Department of Commerce, I served on an interagency team led by the White House Homeland Security Council that developed the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza and National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan. The strategy relied heavily on ways of slowing the spread of viral transmissions – “flattening the curve” – to reduce strain on the healthcare system and provide the time needed to develop and deploy vaccines. One such measure is closing schools.