Schools preparing parents and students for closure

Students and parents in Madison have picked up laptops so they can do their schoolwork from home

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus outbreak in alabama.

Tonight there are 531 confirmed cases!

That's almost 150 more than wednesday's latest update!

More than 4,000 people have been tested.

Alabama's lone death so far was a woman in jackson county.

The state department of health says the median age for alabamians with coronavirus is 47 years old.

Huntsville utilities is providing relief to customers.

Its suspending late fees for payments on bills that are due on or after march 16th.

That's until further notice.

This is in addition to huntsville utilities suspension of service interruptions for non- payment.

Tonight - parents are preparing to help their children finish the school year at home!

This is a live look from the madison county schools central office -- where administrators and teachers are putting together take- home curriculum for students.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm dan shaffer.

And i'm najahe sherman.

The madison city schools interim-superintendent says it is making sure students and parents are ready for months of non-traditional learning..

Eric terrell, interim superintendent, madison city schools with a snap of your finger, we go from a traditional style of learning to a different style of learning.

So we're going to be supportive and work with our parents and students the best way that we can.

He said they have been planning for this for weeks.

They anticipated that governor kay ivey would close the schools due to the coronavirus.

Waay 31's will robinson-smith is live at asbury church in madison where students and parents came tonight to pick up laptops and hot spots so they can do their school work from home.

This event was scheduled for about two hours and for just about the entire time, folks were wrapped around the church waiting to get their gear.

They say they're appreciative the district took this initiative.

Arlena adams, parent definitely try to keep them on a schedule: getting up at a certain time, breakfast, lunch, dinner, just because it will be crazy if i don't.

Arlena adams story is similar to parents around the state.

She's now juggling working at home and trying to further her daughters' education at the same time.

Arlena adams, parent good thing i have an older daughter to help shepherd the younger daughter and just keep peace and make it fun.

The trio came down to asbury church on thursday to pick up chrome books from madison city schools workers as they prepare to spend the rest of the school year learning from home.

Melody adams, 7th grader, discovery middle school pretty surprised.

I mean, everything's changing so fast and it's kind of...a lot.

Some parents say they didn't expect the schools would re-open this year.

Lorenzo putnam, parent i wasn't surprised.

The way this is snowballing, i figured they would probably do that.

It's for the students' safety more than anything else.

Thursday was the fourth time the school system handed out hot spots and laptops.

Technology infrastructure coordinator tommy paone says they started planning for remote learning before the state closed schools for coronavirus.

Tommy paone, coordinator of technology infrastructure, madison city schools we called verizon and went ahead and had that phone call with them and how quickly could they get us devices.

They said 'right now we're ok.

Right now, we have devices, plus we have some in reserve.'

But if we'd called a week later, we wouldn't have been able to get any.

They went quickly.

Interim-superintendent eric terrell says he's thankful madison city schools has the ability to help students eric terrell, interim superintendent, madison city schools we're here to try and make that transition as less of a curve as we can during this time because i know it can be very difficult.

School officials tell me over these distribution sessions, they've distributed about 200 hot spots and have another 300 coming in.

Tommy paone says they're also working with verizon and t-mobile to route the wireless connection through the school's network, so students continue to be safe while they're online.

Reporting live in madison, will robinson-smith, waay