Pupils should be given £30 vouchers for each day they are out of class due to Covid to help them catch up, ministers have been told.
Soaring Omicron cases threaten to cause fresh disruption to children's education, with schools braced for a wave of infections as they reopen after Christmas.
More than 236,000 pupils were out of class for virus-related reasons in the week leading up to December 9, according to the latest Government data available.
Infectious diseases expert Professor Neil Ferguson said on Tuesday that the return to class would drive up infections - as many schools began to break up for Christmas as Omicron started to take hold.
And teaching unions are warning that some children may be sent home due to staffing shortages.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said face-to-face learning must continue wherever possible.
But in an open letter to heads at the start of term, he admitted that avoiding remote learning entirely may be impossible.
The Liberal Democrats said parents of state school pupils should be given a voucher for every day of class missed, which could go towards tutoring for their children.
The scheme would cost £3.6 million a week based on the current rate of absences, the party said, or 1% of the Government's initial £350 million National Tutoring Programme catch-up fund.
Lib Dem Education spokesperson Munira Wilson said: "The Omicron variant is without doubt going to wreak havoc as our schools return this week and the Government has left schools woefully underprepared to deal with the chaos this will cause pupils, parents and teachers alike.
“No child should be left behind as we enter a time of unprecedented staff absences and case rates.
"Funding catch-up vouchers would empower parents to restore their children’s education, which the Conservatives have demonstrated time and again is not their priority.
“From a botched catch-up package to a complete failure on getting air purifiers into schools, the Government must act radically so children are given the opportunity to catch up on the education they are missing due to the Conservatives’ incompetence.”
Government-commissioned research by the Education Policy Institute found the average pupil could see their lifetime earnings hit by 1-3% due to lost learning - or at least £16,000 lost in earnings.
A recent Ofsted report found almost every child in England had fallen behind on their schooling since the start of the pandemic.
Boris Johnson's catch-up tsar Sir Kevan Collins quit last year after his demands for a £15bn proposals were watered down to a £1.4bn package.
