Pandemic-Related Home Schooling – Alone or in Pods – Is Driving Interest in Alternative Education Spaces

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. As more families are facing the real or presumed likelihood of their children starting the school year outside of a traditional school building, they are looking for new places to do their lessons alone and with a small group of other children.  

Families with free space within their homes are creating dedicated schooling areas in basements and garages. This sort of a project could be anywhere from a minor project of moving around existing furniture to a mid-level improvement with new furniture to a major renovation with drywall, new electrical work, extended heating/cooling, more hospitable flooring, and new lighting.

However, families that are hosting or supporting learning groups with children from multiple families are looking for work spaces outside their personal homes. The most basic of these options includes setting up open-sided tents in their backyard, expecting that children will need to keep their coats on as the weather cools. Some families seek to repurpose family RVs as modern one-room schoolhouses. Still others are adding tiny homes (more formally known as accessory dwelling units) to their property, figuring they can be used as guest spaces or even Airbnb rentals after the pandemic. Some commercial real estate agents are hoping to repurpose vacant store fronts as pod school locations outfitted with high-speed internet and large flat-screen monitors.

For more information and discussion of opportunities, see The Freedonia Group’s extensive collection of off-the-shelf research, particularly in the Construction and Building Products. Freedonia also offers an expanding catalog of COVID-19 Economic Impact reports, which highlight how various industries are responding to the current crisis with a comparison to recent recessions. Freedonia Custom Research is also available for questions requiring tailored market intelligence.