By Nadia Dreid

Law360 (March 24, 2020, 5:31 PM EDT) -- Schools and libraries that have had to shut their doors to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus can keep their Wi-Fi networks open so the public may still benefit, the Federal Communications Commission confirmed.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition said Monday that it had extracted the clarification from the agency, specifying that such libraries and schools wouldn't risk their E-rate internet subsidies by staying online during the pandemic.

"Shutting down these Wi-Fi networks could have been disastrous for the millions of people who depend on schools or libraries as their only point of internet access," coalition Executive Director John Windhausen Jr. said in a statement.

But with that clear, the coalition is now asking the agency to "take the next step" by allowing schools and libraries to expand their internet service into the wider community, ostensibly so people don't have to travel to a closed school or library during the pandemic to gain internet access.

The clarification from the agency comes as the digital divide is thrown into sharp relief, as the spread of COVID-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — shutters schools across the nation, forcing thousands of children into distance learning for possibly the rest of the school year.

Millions of school-age children live in homes without internet access, leaving them unable or forced to struggle to complete all their assignments in what has become known as the homework gap. Such students often turned to libraries or even fast-food restaurants with open internet connections, but in the rising public health crisis, those doors have swiftly closed to them just as nearly all of their learning moves to an online format.

When Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser revealed Tuesday that she would be shutting down all nonessential business in the nation's capital. She also unveiled a fund aimed at making sure the district's children have access to internet and devices to do their schoolwork during the pandemic.

The D.C. Education Equity Fund already has more than $1 million in it, according to the mayor. The funds will go toward buying hotspots and tablets and devices for the nearly one-third of D.C. public school students who don't have one or the other at home, she said.

But schoolchildren aren't the only ones caught on one side of the digital divide at a time when social distancing and shelter-in-place orders are keeping millions inside.

More than 250 organizations teamed up Friday to ask the FCC to beef up several of its safety-net programs that ensure that low-income families have access to cellphone and internet service.

They asked the agency to immediately begin providing its Lifeline subsidy program subscribers with unlimited minutes and data so they can have access to telehealth services and any other communication that may be necessary during self-quarantine or social distancing.

"Millions of Americans are staying home and millions of others are on the front lines of the pandemic — and therefore more susceptible to the virus — working in essential industries such as keeping food on grocery store shelves. Program participants cannot be in danger of running out of minutes or texts in this moment," the groups said in their letter.

--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.

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