<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Over the course of 20 days in March 2020, 55 million American children stopped going to school as Covid-19 swept the United States.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">What was impossible to anticipate then was that millions of those students would not return to classrooms full-time until September 2021, a year and a half later.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Those children and teenagers, often in public schools in Democratic areas, remained online at home while private schools, child-care centers, public schools in conservative regions, office buildings, bars, restaurants, sports arenas and theaters sputtered back toward normalcy.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Five years on, the devastating impact of the pandemic on children and adolescents is widely acknowledged across the political spectrum. School closures were not the only reason the pandemic was hard on children, but research shows that the longer schools stayed closed, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/upshot/pandemic-school-closures-data.html" title="">the farther behind students fell</a>.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">What would happen if another health crisis came along — a pressing concern, as cases of measles and bird flu emerge? In the face of a new unknown pathogen, how would school leaders and lawmakers make decisions?</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="ImageBlock-3"><div data-testid="imageblock-wrapper"><figure aria-label="media" class="img-sz-medium css-1hs5yzu e1g7ppur0" role="group"><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0" data-testid="photoviewer-children-figure"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Image</span><picture><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/03/13/multimedia/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1800"/><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/03/13/multimedia/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1200"/><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/03/13/multimedia/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=600"/><img alt="Children in masks raise their hands in a classroom." class="css-r3fift" decoding="async" height="902" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 60vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/03/13/multimedia/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/03/13/multimedia/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/03/13/multimedia/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp 682w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/03/13/multimedia/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt/13nat-covid-education-02-qkwt-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp 1363w" uri="nyt://image/e4507d46-ea0c-57bd-baaa-ef19a8fe2477" width="600"/></picture></div><figcaption class="css-gbc9ki ewdxa0s0" data-testid="photoviewer-children-caption"><span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">After the earliest days of the pandemic, some schools reopened quickly. Others stayed closed for months.</span><span class="css-14fe1uy e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span aria-hidden="false">Hannah Yoon for The New York Times</span></span></span></figcaption></figure></div></div><div data-testid="Optimistic-4"><div class="css-1336jj"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171quhb"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1b5b8u1" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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