A Downingtown family has developed a contingency plan to deal with Omicron-related disruptions to its elementary school schedule. Betsy Morris and Jennifer Calfas, for The Wall Street Journal, described this parental approach to sidestepping rampant scholastic stress.

Lauren Lang has been considering her options in case her 10-year-old and 7-year-old get sent home after a COVID-19 exposure or if classes go remote once again.

“You just don’t know,” said Lang. “I am by nature a planner. And the fact that you can’t plan for this is killing me.”

Both she and her husband work full-time and need child-care help if their kids stay home. The situation is especially tricky for Lang, who works in university admissions, where the early part of the year is crunch time.

The family developed a contingency plan.

Lang called her mother who lives two hours north and agreed that if the school shuts down, grandparents will meet her halfway and take the children for a few days or a full week. Lang would make the trip on the two days she is able to work from home.

Read more about the familial flexibility necessary to manage schedule variations in The Wall Street Journal.