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This is our biweekly briefing on the pandemic, vetted by John Bailey. .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story

Did You Know: 45% of kids in Sacramento County read at grade level. and find info on summer programs, resources, and more in your area.

— Learning Heroes (@BeALearningHero)

New Campaign Tries to Convince Parents Their Kids Have Fallen Behind

• “The advertising campaign will target the six cities 鈥� Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York City, Sacramento County in California and Washington, D.C. 鈥� with displays of side-by-side data showing the percentage of students proficient in math or English in that city and the percentage of parents who think their child is at or above grade level in that subject.”
• “A 鈥� a nonprofit focused on ensuring parents have accurate information about students鈥� progress 鈥� found that 92% of parents believe their children are at grade level and doing fine in the classroom despite evidence that a majority of students are struggling.”
• More here:

The Big Three

What We Know So Far: Post COVID-19 Test Score Recovery

• : NBER paper from Clare Halloran, Claire Hug, Rebecca Jack and Emily Oster.
• “We use state test score data to analyze patterns of test score recovery over the 2021-22 school year.”
• “On average, we find that 20% of test score losses are recovered in English language arts (ELA) by 2022, compared to 37% in math.” 
• “These recovery rates do not significantly vary across demographic characteristics, baseline achievement rates, in-person schooling rates in the pandemic school year or category-based measures of recovery funding allocations.”
• Related: , led by Oster, is seeking input from education professionals, researchers and journalists who work with state assessment data, via a . The purpose of this is to better understand how the data are being used and to better understand areas for growth. 

Six Budget Considerations for Districts as ESSER Fiscal Cliff Looms

• 鈥淲ith the last federal COVID-19 relief fund deadline approaching in 18 months, district financial teams should prepare for financial stress over the next two years that could be worse than the last recession, according to Marguerite Roza, an education finance researcher and director of Georgetown University鈥檚 Edunomics Lab.鈥�
• 鈥淲hile most district leaders don鈥檛 yet have a game plan, budgeting decisions made by districts later this spring 鈥� as well as earlier decision-making, like where they invested ESSER funds 鈥� will determine how well they are able to weather the storm.鈥�
• .

National COVID Emergency Ends

• President Joe Biden has .
• However: 鈥淭he law Biden signed Monday 鈥� along with the Trump-era Title 42 border policy.鈥�

COVID-19 Research

School Closures During COVID-19: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

• : “Both school closures and in-school mitigations were associated with reduced COVID-19 transmission, morbidity and mortality in the community. School closures were also associated with reduced learning, increased anxiety and increased obesity in pupils.”

Scientists Continue to Debate COVID-19 Origins

• : “Chinese researchers who isolated three live SARS-CoV-2 viruses and viral DNA from environmental samples at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, say the findings , according to a published today in Nature.”

City & State News

Florida: .

• “An analysis that was the basis of a highly criticized recommendation from Florida鈥檚 surgeon general cautioning young men against getting the COVID-19 vaccine omitted information that showed catching the virus could increase the risk of a cardiac-related death much more than getting the mRNA shot, according to drafts of the analysis obtained by the .”

Tennessee: A state law could in bid to help kids recover from the pandemic.

California: during spring break in Los Angeles Unified.

These 15 states could take the biggest hit as ESSER funds expire: on a new .

Viewpoints

America鈥檚 Teens Are in Crisis. States Race to Respond

• : 鈥淩esponding to clamoring from parents, and dreadful stories of youth suicide and hospitalizations, leaders in both parties convey an increasing sense of urgency to address epidemic levels of teenage anxiety, depression, loneliness and lashing out.鈥�
• Related: Teen mental health crisis pushes more school districts to sue social media giants, via 91涩漫

Rewrite Attendance Laws to Promote Learning, Not Seat Time

• : 鈥淭wo depressing developments of the past couple years have given birth to a radical idea: Let鈥檚 rethink state 鈥榗ompulsory attendance鈥� laws so that they鈥檙e phrased in terms of kids learning rather than years in school.鈥�
• First: 鈥淓vidence that lots of students are not availing themselves of high-dose tutoring when it鈥檚 available, no matter how much they need and would benefit from it, and they鈥檙e not signing up for summer school, either.”
• Second: 鈥淭he growing number of districts and schools that are moving to four-day weeks, ostensibly to deal with budget woes and teacher shortages, ease burn-out and forestall quitting.”
• “Maybe, finally, today we鈥檝e reached an inflection point where, with the help of better assessments, lots of 24/7 technology and much greater concern with 鈥榬eadiness,鈥� we should ease off the focus on time and refocus instead on mastery.”
• Related analysis via 91涩漫: Students in 4-day-a-week schools can suffer COVID-level learning losses

…And on a Lighter Note

It’s Officially Spring:

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to .

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