Do you understand the benefits of drawing by hand on paper? I think you are smart and educated. Please, do your research properly, if not for you for the benefit of your kid. There are tons of research on this subject.
I have a wall covered floor to ceiling with paper and canvas of her art: oil, acrylics, watercolor, pencil, and probably some I'm forgetting. Don't worry about my daughter, she gets ten hours a week of private art instruction.
That's unrelated to her fifth-grade art class, though. During a pandemic, it seems wise that her school is mostly eschewing requiring paper, and especially not counting on every student's home having a printer.
School-supplied Chromebook + Google Classroom, no paper at all!