By Wednesday, 91,000 U.S. public and private schools had closed or were scheduled to close, affecting at least 41.7 million school students, according to Education Week. The nation’s largest teachers’ unions have thrown their support behind nationwide shutdowns.

Districts that have closed for several weeks are already looking at extensions. Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, who led the parade of state leaders who shut down their systems, said he would not be surprised if his schools did not reopen this year. Maryland’s state superintendent also signaled that its two-week closure was likely to be extended. And Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, a Democrat, was the first to make the call, announcing on Tuesday that the state’s elementary and secondary schools would be closed for the remainder of the school year.

Such decisions are being made without the guidance of the federal government. Superintendents are deploying across their districts to check on distribution sites where low-income students and their families can pick up free meals that would have been served in their schools. Others are organizing makeshift internet cafes in school buses so students can gain access to digital learning.

But in the long term, administrators do not know what to expect. Superintendents are wondering if their schools will be turned into hospitals, maybe even homeless shelters. And as they contemplate transitioning to online classes — which the vast majority of schools are not equipped to do — they are worried about lawsuits or the loss of federal funding if they cannot provide the same level of education to all students, as required by law.

At least one school system, Northshore School District in Washington, announced that it would “pause” its online learning, while officials “continue to address challenges related to state and federal expectations that could result in a loss of critical funding.”