It’s hard to believe we are headed back to school in the midst of a pandemic. If your children attend Austin ISD, they will not be starting back to school until September 8th. Students at other schools in the City of Austin or Travis County will be doing remote learning until at least September 7th. It is unclear what will happen beyond September 7th/8th. To help support your family in this “new normal”, I have created an updated and expanded post with back-to-school family organization tips specifically focused on prepping for back-to-school amidst COVID. This is not your typical school supplies, back-to-school clothes, lunch ideas type of post. I focus on a variety of information and resources specific to back-to-school in a pandemic, such as: setting up an ergonomic work or school station for all members of the family; supply recommendations for working and learning from home; how to ensure that you have sufficient internet bandwidth to handle all the Zoom calls; setting up the kids’ annual appointments and vaccine booster appointments (and options for this if you do not have insurance); tutoring and learning pod options; setting up the back-to-school schedule; household organization tips; strategies to support the dual career balancing act; and support groups for parents and teachers. As always, all information provided is based on Enriched Family’s independent research. Enriched Family does not receive any kick-backs or payments from any of the resources included below, nor do we accept advertising on our site.

If you are looking for information on alternative schooling options, check out our previous blog post, Enriched Family Roundup: Alternative Schooling Options for the Fall. As always, use the ideas that seem like they would be helpful to you and your family, and disregard those that do not. And bear in mind, you do not have to finish all of your organizing before the first day of school. Prioritize the most important things for your family and then ease into the rest as time allows.