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California leaders have reached an agreement to encourage schools to resume in-person classes by the end of March. The agreement combines proposals from Gov. Gavin Newsom and from California's legislature to provide $6.6 billion to help return schools to in-person learning. (Mossburg and Moon, 3/2)

The majority of California’s 6.1 million public school students could be back in the classroom by April under new legislation announced Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders. Critics panned the plan as inadequate. Most students in the nation’s most populous state have been learning from home for the past year during the pandemic. But with new coronavirus cases falling rapidly throughout the state, Newsom and lawmakers have been under increasing pressure to come up with a statewide plan aimed at returning students to schools in-person. (Beam, 3/2)

The U.S. is seeing an almost-universal return of schools that were in-person as of November, as well as a gradual return in parts of the country that had been virtual for almost a year. (Fernandez, 3/1)

The state Senate failed on Monday to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Republican legislation that would have directed North Carolina’s K-12 school districts to offer in-person instruction to all students in about two weeks. The 29-20 floor vote to override fell just short of the three-fifths majority required, so the veto was upheld. The override still would have had to been approved by the House to be successful. (Robertson, 3/2)

It's long been true that some students who attend Monroe County schools struggle with not having enough food to eat, and COVID-19 has made the situation worse. Educators say the pandemic also has led to new solutions for student hunger. (Klingener, 3/2)

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted childhood in every state, with particularly devastating consequences in the South, where families are most likely to run low on food and struggle with bills and access to online schooling, according to a new report. Louisiana — where 1 in 4 families lack sufficient food, more than anywhere else in the country — placed as the “worst” state for children during the pandemic, the global nonprofit Save the Children found in its ranking based on U.S. census surveys. It was followed by Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico and Alabama. Minnesota and Utah were the states where children fared the best, with Washington, New Hampshire and North Dakota rounding out the top five. (Harris, 3/2)

KHN: Beijing’s SARS Lockdown Taught My Children Resilience. Your Covid Kids Will Likely Be Fine.

Many parents are filled with angst as they prepare for their children to exit a year of pandemic isolation: Will it be OK to send them to school, per the recent recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Will school feel like school if students are masked and can’t trade snacks? Will children’s development be impaired by nearly a year of seeing few friends? With 20-20 hindsight, I can provide some reassurance, because my kids were 8 and 10 when SARS hit Beijing nearly two decades ago, shutting down the city for months: Your children will likely be fine, and maybe even better as human beings for having lived through this tragic experience. (Rosenthal, 3/2)