The range of weather Alabama has experienced in the last week has put schools in a difficult position of whether to require students to be at school for in-person learning, to move to at-home virtual learning, or to close schools altogether.

On Friday, Jan. 12, a dozen school districts closed for the day ahead of strong winds and storms, while 60-plus districts moved to virtual or remote learning. And snow and ice across much of Alabama led to closures Tuesday, too – with more remote learning and closures planned for Wednesday.

Closures during bad weather makes sense, but State Superintendent Eric Mackey told local officials in the fall that they should be careful to not over-rely on e-learning in place of in-person school.

“I’ve been concerned about possible overuse of e-learning days,” Mackey said. “We’ve got to be a lot more careful about e-learning days when there is not an actual natural disaster.”

While schools try to give as much notice as possible about e-learning days, unexpectedly having a child home and figuring out how to oversee virtual school work can be difficult.

“It seems we didn’t learn anything from the pandemic,” Hoover parent Danielle Hill said. “What we proved was that e-learning was not consistent across the board, parents were not equipped to pick up the educational tasks at home in a teaching capacity, students did not stay engaged long-term and proficiency suffered.”

Related: Schools close, go virtual on Wednesday, Jan. 17 due to ice, snow and road closures

Hill works from home and when her children stay home during a virtual learning day, her work is impacted. “Instead of allowing my kids to do chores, read books and relax all day,” she said, “I had to check their Google classrooms for new assignments, outline the day, follow up on the assignments for completeness, schedule in breaks, answer questions and generally be on call, all while juggling work meetings, deadlines, fielding emails and calls from customers and not allowing my productivity to slip, lest I be perceived as ‘slacking off’ at home by my peers.”

Tuscaloosa parent Heather Lowery said she doesn’t mind having e-learning days as opposed to having the day off. “I’d much rather do this versus having to make the day up later,” she said.

Not everyone has access to the internet, though, and she worries that e-learning days can end up punishing students without it.

“I appreciate that Tuscaloosa County School System mentioned that if you don’t have access to the internet you would be able to make the assignments up,” she said.

“Just because the kids are home doesn’t mean the parents are off work, too,” Hoover parent Beth Lynch said. “We just can’t sit a 7-year-old in front of a screen and walk away expecting them to learn on their own.”

Parents can’t always help children with their school work, either, particularly with younger children. “We need to sit with them and walk them through lessons,” Lynch added, “when we aren’t even entirely sure about how they are being taught because it’s all different from when we were in school.”

“E-learning is a decent filler for weather days, but not a permanent option for education. Children need interaction with other children.”

When a natural disaster is expected, Mackey said, it obviously makes sense to either move to virtual learning or to close school. When the governor declares a state of emergency, as she did for 25 counties during the current winter weather outbreak, he said, schools can close and do not have to make up the missed day.

But if no state of emergency has been declared, closing school typically means the day has to be made up later in the school year. That may be why school officials prefer to shift to virtual learning, state board of education member Wayne Reynolds said.

“Here’s what happens,” Reynolds said. “They stay home, they have to make it up. They call it a virtual learning day, they don’t have to make it up.”

“Data has shown over time, that during the pandemic, virtual days and online days caused significant reductions in student learning,” he added.

Reynolds, a former educator and superintendent, said the lack of oversight as to whether virtual learning is actually taking place adds to the problem.

“I’m not certain how we as a state board, or as an oversight group, look at people who just say it’s virtual learning without some proof that there’s actually a connection and students are actually being taught during those hours.”

“A simple declaration that it’s a student elearning day by anyone doesn’t prove that learning went on,” Reynolds added. “And it may not be in compliance with state laws requiring certain days of instruction in Alabama.”