As the number of coronavirus cases rises in Louisiana amid what the World Health Organization now considers a global pandemic, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned educators to "prepare for the possibility of community-level outbreaks" in public and private K-12 schools and day-care centers that could lead to closures.

As of Wednesday, no K-12 schools in the seven-parish metro area, including Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany and Plaquemines parishes, had reported a student or teacher who had tested positive for COVID-19.

[UPDATE (3/13/20): Public K-12 schools in Louisiana shut down through April because of coronavirus]

But schools in other major cities, including Seattle and San Francisco, announced in recent days they were shutting their doors because of outbreaks. And New Orleans educators briefed City Council members about potential public school closures and how students might learn in spite of them.

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NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. and Chief Operations Officer Tiffany Delcour said any students or staff members who come in contact with a patient who has tested positive for the virus would be asked to stay home for two weeks.

They said they would recommend closing a school if a single person in the school tested positively for coronavirus and if leaders feared that case would impact the community, but they stressed that all decisions would be made on a "case-by-case basis."

Should the infection spread to schools, local educators would be in touch with the Louisiana Department of Health, according to its spokesman, Kevin Litten. The Office of Public Health would then recommend whether to shut down the school, but the final decision would be made locally.

Any closure prompted by a confirmed case would last at least 14 days, the incubation period following exposure, when those infected might start to see symptoms like fever, cough and shortness of breath.

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The state Health Department might suggest a school close "if a significant number of students or faculty were out, and normal school activities simply could not continue," Litten said.

In New Orleans, every school has been given a key action steps checklist, officials said; the last update was sent Tuesday afternoon.

Several details are still being hashed out, including how to institute remote learning or free lunch delivery in the event a school is closed.

To prepare for a prolonged school closure, NOLA Public Schools has asked charter organizations to come up with contingency plans for providing meals.

Citywide, 84% of public school students are considered economically disadvantaged. That means thousands of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, and many rely on that program to get enough to eat.

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The district has asked each school to contact vendors and discuss which items could be provided for “grab and go”-style meals, officials said.

It wasn't immediately clear if schools in other districts had developed plans to deliver lunches to students in need, although the CDC's guidance calls for such plans.

The CDC has also urged districts to "ensure the continuity of education," which would mean implementing online learning plans, if feasible. The agency says that childcare programs and schools may stay open for staff members who aren't ill while students stay home, so teachers can deliver instruction remotely.

Another big concern among officials is standardized testing, which is scheduled for the end of March and April.

Department of Education officials said that, as with past events like hurricanes and floods, the state would address any testing conflicts "on a case-by-case basis" and make accommodations, as appropriate.

Superintendent of Education John White said state officials have had internal discussions about public schools conducting classes online because of the epidemic. "I think it is feasible," he said, adding that those decisions rest at the local level. "Whether or not it is desirable or feasible at the scale contemplated is a different question."

In New Orleans, the district has asked each school to assess its ability to provide wifi-enabled devices and data plans for students so they can potentially learn from home. Several schools have begun to do this, according to letters sent to parents by charter organizations.

As a last resort, the district could use its public access cable channel to broadcast classes, Delcour told the City Council.

"We are evaluating our options, and we will be doing a lot of things," she said.

Other districts in the seven-parish region said distance learning would be extremely difficult because of many students' lack of access to the internet. Officials in St. John the Baptist Parish, for instance, said there are currently no plans for teaching remotely.

Ted Beasley, a spokesman for Jefferson Parish Schools, said officials would have to include some kind of "paper-based component" to remote learning because about half of students don't have internet access.

"We do have on-demand, self-paced, e-learning options available for families and are having internal discussions around how to serve as many families as possible should the need arrive," Beasley said in an email.

School officials also said they are implementing precautionary practices, including deep-cleaning schools and self-quarantining students who have traveled to a country deemed high-risk by the CDC.

In the meantime, local parents say they are scrambling to prepare for possible closures. Many worried about stocking up on food, coming up with plans for working remotely and figuring out how to keep their kids' schooling on track.

"My only concern is how they'll make up for the time lost," said Tatyana Meshcheryakova, a parent of two children at Morris Jeff Community School in New Orleans. "My high-schooler gets a lot of work processed remotely already, through an online system ... but I can't see the third-grader doing the same."

Staff writers Jessica Williams and Will Sentell contributed to this story.