Another option would be to create the virtual table used for the table-valued function using a schema to define the columns: CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE students_

Another option would be to create the virtual table used for the table-valued function using a schema to define the columns: CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE students_json_read USING lines_json_read(schema="students-schema.json); Then, that one table could be used for multiple files: SELECT * FROM students_json_read('school1-students.json'); SELECT * FROM students_json_read('school2-students.json');