Within hours of the announcement closing Louisiana schools for the next month, parents, teachers, nonprofits, and companies had already begun mobilizing to share resources, links, curricula, virtual museum tours, and so much more. As uncertainty swirls around the spread of COVID-19, the community’s strong response to fill these education gaps is providing parents with a great dose of optimism.

This unprecedented situation is giving parents and children a deeper understanding of the wide variety of quality educational options available to them in our modern world. It also shines a light on the importance of giving every parent quality options for their child’s education. Parents and guardians of more than 23,000 Louisiana students exercised the choice to homeschool their kids prior to the COVID-19 outbreak – that number is now 716,416, at least for a few weeks.

When things return to normal, the Pelican Institute will continue to make the case that every child, regardless of background or socioeconomic situation, deserves a high-quality education that best meets his or her unique needs. For now, see below for a list of resources we’ve gathered to help parents and students make the most of the downtime. (Please send along your ideas, and we’ll continue to update the list!)

We’ll also have a lot more to say on policy in the coming days and weeks, and we encourage you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. You can also share a story about your recent experiences with homeschooling or tag us using our “A School That Fits” hashtag, #ASTF.

Louisiana Homeschooling Resources: