3 big ways to help families impacted by school closures this holiday

Written By Manisha Snoyer (co-founder of Modulo)

On Wednesday March 11, 2020 governors across the United States announced that 55 million US school children would be out of school starting Monday, with no definitive plan in place for their remote education or childcare. Overnight, we launched schoolclosures.org with information and a hotline with live support for those in crisis. Within a month, we’d grown to 300 volunteers and 80 partner organizations serving 100,000 families and teachers around the world. As we scrambled to meet urgent, evolving needs, what was overwhelmingly clear is that problems families were experiencing in the pandemic were not new. The crisis exacerbated existing inequities in the education & childcare system and brought them into greater focus. We worked on a wide range of projects ranging from food and financial security to remote learning, work from home, mental health, access to computers and free tutoring.

A year and a half later, families are still struggling to repair the damage caused by a year of remote school, but also, for many, no school at all. Not all districts were able to adapt in so short a time.

It can be painful living every day knowing that so many communities are struggling to meet their basic needs (food, education and mental health). However, there are ways we can help.

This holiday season, we wanted to highlight three organizations who are making major strides to helping families through the pandemic. They all offer opportunities to volunteer time or contribute financially to make a major impact for families and children.

If you are struggling from the impact of the pandemic and don’t know what to turn, these organizations can support you in getting food for your family, helping you or your child through anxiety and depression or getting academic support to help your child catch up and excel in school. Also, please reach out to us directly for free advice and support by replying to this email or contacting manisha@modulo.app. We are committed to helping any family who needs it, the the advice and support they need for the long term.


FOOD INSECURITY

No Kid Hungry: End Child Hunger in America
During the pandemic, No Kid Hungry activated their summer texting hotline to connect kids and families to meals during school closures. Parents & caregivers can text FOOD or COMIDA to 877-877 to find their nearest meal sites. The service is live in 35 states, including Washington, DC. https://www.nokidhungry.org/find-meal-sites .

Host a Fundraiser or Donate

MENTAL HEALTH

Crisis Text Line: Promote mental well-being for people wherever they are. 
Crisis Text Line provides free 24/7, high-quality text-based mental health support & crisis intervention by empowering a community of trained volunteers to support people in their moments of need. Anyone can text SHARE to 741741 to reach a volunteer Crisis Counselor anywhere in the US. They saw a large volume increase during the pandemic and into 2021. On average they de-escalate crisis over 3,500 times a day. In 2020 alone, they had 1.4 million conversations and processed over 48 million messages. The majority of texters are young adults and children. Their data team has done extensive research on what they learned about teens mental health during the pandemic and have used this research to help support students nationally this fall with back to school toolkits that share resources and tips for students, parents and teachers.

Volunteer as a Crisis Counselor or Make a donation

EDUCATION

MasteryHour.org: Give every child the chance to reach their full potential
Since the pandemic, our team at schoolclosures.org has narrowed its focus to providing high quality, 1-1 mastery learning for free in English and Spanish to any child who needs it. We are currently tutoring hundreds of kids around the world every day on zoom in English and Spanish. We are looking for volunteer tutors and funding to hire a full-time training coordinator to ensure our kids are getting access to the highest quality tutoring available and expand access to every child in the world. Any family can sign up for unlimited 1-1 tutoring for free at masteryhour.org.
Volunteer to tutor or Make a donation

Manisha Snoyer (co-founder of Modulo)

For the last 20 years, I’ve taught over 2000 children in 3 countries (of all socio-economic backgrounds). I pioneered an English language program in a conflict region in the Middle East. I’ve worked as a bilingual public school teacher at some of the highest and lowest performing public schools and in all five boroughs of NYC. I’ve tutored 18 subjects in three languages to some of the wealthiest families in NYC, San Francisco and Paris to make up for shortcomings in private schools they were paying up to $60,000 a year to attend.

Since 2015, I’ve helped hundreds of parents start microschools (way before this was a household buzzword). I founded CottageClass, the first marketplace for microschools and learning pods that was part of the Techstars 2018 class. In 2019, I created a virtual learning program to help families through the pandemic, a free online math tutoring program (masteryhour.org), and schoolclosures.org, a hotline developed in collaboration with Twilio and 80 other partners including Khan Academy, Revolution Foods and the Crisis Text Line, that served 100,000 families impacted by school closures.

I’ve climbed trees with children in forest schools in San Francisco, and tested new digital apps with kids in seven countries.

I’ve also coached dozens of families at different stages in their homeschooling journey. Most recently, I founded Modulo with homeschooling dad, best-selling author and tech entrepreneur Eric Ries, to help families curate their children’s education, social and childcare experiences drawing from a diverse array of in-person and online resources.


During the last three years, I’ve devoted much of my time to reviewing and testing secular homeschooling curriculum and other resource. I’ve spent the last three years talking to thousands of secular homeschooling families, and poring over tens of thousands of secular curriculum reviews and testing physical curriculum and digital apps for with hundreds of students to find the highest quality, most engaging, personalized learning materials for every type of learner.

I’ve spoken about homeschooling and modular learning at multiple venues including SXSW EDU, NY Tech Meetup, and on the LiberatedEd podcast.

In 2022, Modulo was one of 8 organizations who were awarded the Bridge Grant from the Vela Education Fund to expand access to homeschooling and modular learning to under-resourced communities.

My experience in education and homeschooling has led me to believe that there is no perfect education for every child, but families have an extraordinary amount of wisdom they can apply to building the perfect education for their individual child.

My goal with Modulo is to make it possible for any family to easily build a customized education that their child will love, and that will empower the whole family to thrive, taking into account, social, emotional and academic needs.

I love to answer questions from parents and receive feedback on how we can improve Modulo, so feel free to reach out anytime! I personally answer all the questions and comments readers leave on my blogs.

In my free time, I like hiking, traveling the world, tasting ceremonial grade matcha, enjoying dark chocolate.

I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University with highest honors, with a double degree in French Literature and American Studies and minors in Environmental Studies and Peace & Conflict Studies.

And I love to learn!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manisha-snoyer-5042298/
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