Pods for all? Some districts and nonprofits are re-imagining the remote learning trend

After the Adams 12 district north of Denver announced it would start the school year fully remote, an official raised a novel idea: school-run learning pods. Administrators in the district of 39,000 students, where about 40 percent of children are eligible for subsidized meals, were initially overwhelmed at the thought of creating pods akin to those formed by wealthy families to handle remote learning and home schooling during the pandemic, said Tara Peña, the district’s executive director of middle schools. Since then, district officials have worked around the clock to coordinate the logistics and now say they hope to have two to three pods per grade level at all 41 elementary, middle, and K-8 schools.