TEXAS – As the new school year starts, families and school districts are scrambling to prepare to keep students and teachers safe during the pandemic. But there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding what in-person and virtual school will look like. 

Many families are finding alternative options like forming “pods,” or groups of three to four children, where the families split the cost of a nanny to help facilitate virtual learning while parents are working.

It's an option Diana Haggarty was considering for each of her four daughters, who range in age from nearly 2 years old, to 16.

While she's scrambling to figure out how to balance all of their virtual learning needs, the family has been doing their best to enjoy the summer before the school year begins.

“They’re all independently and collectively, the most wonderful human beings," said Haggarty.

While the pandemic has turned many aspects of their lives upside down, they're trying to focus on enjoying the added family time.

“We really have valued this extra time— this bonus time together. It’s really helped us to understand each other as people and learn how to work together as a team," said Haggarty.

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed down schools in the spring, all her girls struggled to adapt to virtual learning.

“All of a sudden, overnight, everything was different, and in some ways, everything was gone, everything that they had come to know," said Haggarty.

It was especially difficult for her then-kindergartner, 7-year-old Carina.

“She loathed online learning, loathed with a burning hot passion. So it was a struggle to get her to complete things, to be on screen," said Haggarty. "And then balancing a toddler at the same time was — [it] provided its own unique set of circumstances.”

Haggarty had to step back from her small business to manage a toddler and three different online curriculums.

“Transitioning out of my career has been hard. Losing the thing that I've built for, you know, almost 15 years has definitely— I'm grieving that," said Haggarty. She put her business on pause for the time being. "But being able to focus on my family right now, the needs that they have, the immediate emerging needs that they have— in a job that only I can do— is a really powerful choice to be able to make… and I’m privileged to have it.”

But as the school year approaches with still so much uncertainty about what school will look like, Haggarty is trying to juggle the interests of each of her kids.

“Each of my kids needs something different," said Haggarty.

While her two middle children might benefit from social or learning pods for virtual school, her oldest wants to return to in-person school as soon as it’s an option.

“She desperately wants to be back in person, and if she goes back in person that makes her high risk, which really limits everything for the younger ones in any kind of a pod where the expectation is reducing risk," said Haggarty.

She says the most difficult part is trying to make decisions for her family amid a great deal of uncertainty.

“Being left with so many unanswered questions is not only uncomfortable, but paralyzing. As people who are used to being able to take the information, synthesize it, and act in the best interest of our families— we're not given the information to go on and so planning is nonexistent," said Haggarty.

Haggarty is in a Facebook group where parents are taking matters into their own hands: finding other families, with children in similar age groups, to form “pods” or groups of three to four kids, and splitting the cost of a nanny to supervise virtual learning while parents work.

“I love community organizing, people solving problems together. You know, these larger systems aren't as nimble as we can be on the ground in real time making some of these quick moves and so it was really empowering and beautiful to watch. But at the same time you can see a lot of panic," said Haggarty, who says that she and other parents are struggling to make decisions without answers about class sizes, teacher assignments, and a contingency plan in case of an outbreak at a school.

She says the lack of leadership from the district is frustrating.

“How can they support some of these community-led initiatives to ensure that our children's needs are met? When you have working families that don't know how they're going to be able to supervise their children's learning, we need solutions, and it is— it's not impossible to do it without the district's help, but it would be so much easier," said Haggarty.

Haggarty says she’s also concerned about the accessibility of forming these pods and how they could potentially exacerbate the inequity in the education system.  

“How do we make sure that this is equitable or women sharing their lived experience about not being able to pay a teacher or having the time to organize one of these pods, not to mention the logistical nightmare that is organizing something that is this intimate and high stakes?" said Haggarty.

She created a group called Stronger Together ATX which is working to help parents with resources and logistics for pod-formation, especially low to no cost options for low-income families.

She says she hopes that the district and government step in to help working families who will be facing impossible choices once school starts in the fall.

“Listen to some of these vulnerable communities and exactly what is happening in the homes and these families that are going to be most be most deeply affected. And of course broader commentary as a whole, and make sure that we are not just accidentally creating another broken system. We wouldn't have to do this right now if the system wasn't flawed and falling apart," said Haggarty.