“Remote learning is not going away — it is too early to abandon the planning and infrastructure development necessary to make remote learning successful,” said Allison Lake, executive director of the Westchester Children’s Association. “It may be premature given the current rate of vaccinations, testing rate, and growing list of more dangerous COVID-19 variants to expect that all students can safely learn at school.”

A major lesson of pandemic education was the digital inequity that separates students and their families. Many urban districts needed months to get laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots to kids who didn’t have the resources for at-home school.

The Westchester Children’s Association, a nonprofit that promotes policies that help kids, fought last year to highlight the digital divide. The need to do so remains, Lake said.

“Decision-makers, elected officials, and educators have an opportunity presented by this pandemic to close the gap in digital access and create long-standing solutions for future generations,” she said.