But proactive closures are hard for officials to justify, given the economic and social disruption. School closures burden working parents—and, in particular, health-care workers, who are suddenly overwhelmed with domestic cares when we need them most in the public realm. Kids also miss subsidized meals or the opportunity to spend time in a safe environment.

Families—and teachers, who may have families of their own—vary in their desires about school closures. Some may find them nearly impossible to manage. Others, including a sizable number of first-generation immigrant families, have grandparents or other elder relatives in the home who can provide child-care support in the event of school closures. (These relatives are also more at risk of serious health consequences if they are exposed to the coronavirus.) And while the great majority of families have working parents, at least 32 percent of married-couple households have one parent who stays at home. At least some of these households might prefer to assume the burden of child care during an outbreak.

Schools that feel unwilling or unable to close outright should, then, give their diverse student populations and their teachers some flexibility.

For starters, schools could stay open but announce that they will tolerate long absences for as long as the crisis lasts. Schools are rightly concerned about truancy, especially for at-risk students, such as homeless children. But the usual rules of reporting extended absences to child-welfare authorities shouldn’t apply in this moment of national crisis. Since attendance records determine school funding and Every Student Succeeds Act scores, such policies should also be suspended or waived.

Parents in all 50 states have the right to educate their children as they choose, so it really doesn’t make sense to turn families into adversaries with arguments about whose perception of risk is more accurate. (One recent study estimated that 41 percent of Americans face the risk of serious illness should they become infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, due to underlying health conditions.) If families want to take on the responsibility of educating their children during a pandemic, they should be allowed to do so, and schools should welcome these students back at the end of the crisis without recrimination or drama. (That said, parents should not expect that teachers will get their kids caught up on material they have missed.) Children can learn in a number of settings, after all, and parents who keep their kids at home with them are actually performing a public service to those making a different choice, by reducing social mixing.

For the great majority of children who remain in school in such a scenario, teachers and administrators can implement some practical measures immediately, if they keep schools open. In areas of minimal-to-moderate community transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends increased custodial cleanings, more frequent hand-washing, and increasing physical distance among students by splitting up desk clusters, canceling gym classes, and prohibiting mixing in common areas. Limiting outside visitors, field trips, and nonessential social events is an unpleasant step, but taking that action might prevent a school from having to take much more draconian measures later.