Educational organizations of the Russian Federation, including the Perm Territory, forced to master various forms of distance learning in a short time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, faced a number of problems. The purpose of this article is to analyze the level of organization of distance learning in schools of the Perm Territory during the period of strict restrictive measures introduced in the Russian Federation in April-May 2020 in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic (self-isolation), and to analyze the factors that influenced the effectiveness of the implementation of these forms. As the main empirical method in the work, we used a sample survey of teachers (315 people) and an online survey of parents of students of general education organizations of the Perm Territory (the sample size was 22,872 people). The analysis showed that in the conditions of self-isolation, the general educational organizations of the Perm Territory, whose teachers and parents took part in the study, were able to implement various forms of distance learning, but, depending on the available human and material and technical resources, they did it at different levels - minimal, mostly and average. The effectiveness of the organization of distance learning during the period of self-isolation was influenced by material, technical, organizational, methodological and socio-psychological factors. The results of the study revealed a fairly high level of technical readiness of schoolchildren and their families for distance learning at the time of self-isolation, which was due to their place of residence (city or village) and the number of family members (including the number of schoolchildren in the family). During the period of self-isolation, a significant number of interviewed parents took part in the educational process of their children on their own, without resorting to the help of schools, although the main form of their participation was the control of their children's fulfillment of the teacher's tasks. Parents assessed differently the various parameters of their children's involvement in the educational process during the period of self-isolation. As the negative consequences of distance learning during the period of self-isolation, they identified the violation of the regime of work and rest, among the positive - the development of computer skills and increased educational independence of children. In general, we can conclude that the formal aspects of education were mainly implemented, but problems arose with the motivational component of the involvement of schoolchildren in the educational process and its effectiveness.