School closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic forced education worldwide to shift from classroom - based instruction to entirely remote learning strategies, in which education occurs in the student ’s home. Educating very young students poses an additional challenge, as they require active support from their parents to access and use distance education resources. Preschool students in low - income households may be particularly adversely affected by school closures because their parents often have fewer resources and skills and face greater economic and psychological impact s from the pandemic. This paper describes the impacts of a policy experiment implemented in Costa Rica to increase learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, Costa Rica closed schools in March 2020. Together with the Ministry of Public Education of Costa Rica, we designed and implemented a text message program to support preschool students’ learning at home. The program targeted parents of four and five years old preschool students from public schools across the country. The text messages were designed to increase parental engagement with their children’s education by providing simple learning activities and encouraging parents to use the national distance education program.