In Sweden, day care centers and most schools have remained open throughout the pandemic. By Gretchen VogelScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.There’s nearly universal agreement that widespread, long-lasting school closures harm children.
Not only do children fall behind in learning, but isolation harms their mental health and leaves some vulnerable to abuse and neglect.
But during this pandemic, does that harm outweigh the risk—to children, school staff, families, and the community at large—of keeping schools open and giving the coronavirus more chances to spread?The one country that could have definitively answered that question has apparently failed to collect any data.