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Joshua Claybourn is leaning toward sending his kindergarten daughter to in-person classes at a private school next month. Holly Davis’ sixth-grade daughter will learn online, though the family has not yet decided what to do for school for a teenage daughter who requires special accommodations for hearing problems and dyslexia and another who’s starting college. As they decide how their children will learn this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic, parents are anxiously weighing the benefits of in-person instruction against the risks that schools could shut their doors again or that their children could contract the virus and pass it on. (Webber and Groves, 7/26)

KQED's Brian Watt last Thursday spoke with Dr. Naomi Bardach, associate professor of pediatrics and health policy at UCSF, about the risk involved in bringing back classrooms for the upcoming school year, and the differences between how kids and adults both catch and spread the virus. (7/27)

When the influenza pandemic struck America in 1918, most cities responded with measures that included closing schools. Yet three cities — New York, Chicago and New Haven, Connecticut — vowed to remain open. The schools had extensive public health programs in place and argued that keeping students in school was "an opportunity to implement the public health strategies of school medical inspection and intensified disease surveillance," according to a public health report published in 2010. (Torres, 7/26)

The White House would support sending children back to school even if future studies showed kids transmit COVID-19 at a higher rate than currently known, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Friday, arguing schools are "essential places of business." McEnany fielded multiple questions from reporters about President Trump's push for a return to in-person learning this fall even as he cancels some events for the Republican National Convention due to concerns about holding a mass gathering during the pandemic. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, also said Friday it's "an open question" how rapidly children under the age of 10 spread the virus. (Samuels, 7/24)

Fears are growing that COVID-19 could widen inequities in an already inequitable education system. The threat to equity from the pandemic was a major theme at last week’s virtual 73rd Education Writers Association National Seminar. Marquee seminar speaker Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times writer and creator of the 1619 Project, which re-examined how slavery shaped American history, took aim at “pandemic pods.” (Downey, 7/26)