Supporting Rural Students During Remote Learning
This article was written originally for MultiBriefs Education . After nine months, the impact that the pandemic is having on our nation’s most isolated and rural communities continues to rise. With rising cases, the pandemic has forced many schools into extended periods of remote programming this holiday season. In rural communities which often already have equity gap challenges to overcome, this simply does not help to make things better. In this recent Associated Press article , author Cedar Attanasio reports with more detail on this topic. Attanasio highlights students who live in the particularly extreme rural community of Cuba, NM, a village of 800 people on the outskirts of the Navajo Nation who live in a variety of cabins, trailers, campers, and other structures. There, some of the only human connections for families come when the school bus arrives to drop off food, supplies, and assignments. School counselors ride the buses so they can check in with their students. The