5 states and Washington, D.C., order all schools closed

Thousands of schools in five states plus the District of Columbia were set to close as governors ordered statewide shutdowns, a dramatic escalation in the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington Post reports that Ohio went first, announcing Thursday that all of the state’s public and private schools would close for three weeks or more.

Soon after, Maryland’s governor ordered a two-week closure, followed later in the day by New Mexico. Late Thursday, statewide closures were announced in Oregon through March and in Michigan till April 5. And on Friday morning, officials in the Washington, D.C. announced that schools would close next week, through March.

Kentucky’s governor stopped short of a mandatory order but recommended that all public and private schools cease in-person classes.

In Washington state, the governor ordered schools closed for six weeks in three counties, home to about half the state’s children.

Thursday’s announcements were by far the most dramatic affecting school systems. Several individual districts have closed, but nothing close to a statewide action had been taken before now. The orders affect traditional public, charter and private schools.

With these announcements, at least 10,600 public and private schools had been closed or were scheduled to close, affecting at least 4.9 million students, according to a tally by EdWeek. Many early closures had been for just a day or two for cleaning or to give teachers time to plan for possible distance learning, but each day this week has brought more weeks-long closures.

Children do not appear to be at particular risk from the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19, but there is significant concern they could contract the virus at school and bring it home to older relatives and neighbors. There is no treatment or vaccine yet for the illness.

New Mexico, which has six presumptive positive cases of ­covid-19, also acted early. Ryan Stewart, the state’s education secretary, said he had watched as other states acted only after widespread infection. “New Mexico is going to be proactive and do everything we can to prevent the potential spread of the virus,” he said.

A large number of universities have canceled classes this spring, moving courses online. But K-12 school systems have been reluctant to close for numerous reasons. Officials worry about children who depend on schools for free or subsidized breakfast and lunch. They fear that moving classes online will be difficult if not impossible, especially for students from low-income families who may not have access to computers and Internet connections.

In Cleveland, the public schools have been preparing for possible closure for weeks, said Eric Gordon, chief executive of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

He said the district already had prepared educational materials to distribute to students to work on at home and is not relying on anyone having Internet access, knowing many families do not have it. “Our materials are going to be low-tech,” he said.

Cleveland schools, with about 38,000 students, are set to distribute two meals per day to students, all of whom qualify for free meals at school, Gordon said. Students will be able to pick up bagged meals, and school buses may bring some through neighborhoods.

But he said his biggest worry is for parents who have to work and cannot be home to care for out-of-school children. That’s particularly worrisome for low-wage workers, including some whose work is critical to controlling the crisis, such as janitors and home health aides.