Claire Taylor of Midlothian, Texas, said she knew she was on the right track when a friend told her, “You’re already a homeschool mom.” The friend pointed out that Taylor was doing many of the things involved in teaching her children at home. She already thought home education might be a good fit for her sons, 8-year-old Rhett and 6-year-old Reed, but the pandemic gave her the final push to switch.

Sporting backpacks laden with fresh notebooks and sharpened pencils, millions of children in countries around the world returned to school in recent weeks. Many expressed excitement for the new academic year despite the necessity of pandemic precautions like masks and social distancing.

“It felt fine going back to school,” said Eddie Favell, 11, after his first day at Kingsdale Foundation School in London. “I didn’t really think about corona.”

Trouble started brewing in Iowa this summer when Gov. Kim Reynolds announced at least half of all schools must meet in person this fall. She pointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance showing COVID-19 posed little risk to children and transmission rates among kids and even between children and adults remained low.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman Mackenzie Holland spent just two weeks in Ehringhaus Residence Hall before packing up and heading home.

“I kind of expected it, but I’m just kind of disappointed in my classmates and the people that are out partying because now I can’t finish my college experience,” she said. “I know that we’ll be back one day, but it’s just sad right now.”

The chances of Asian American or white students getting into Yale University are one-tenth to one-fourth of those of comparably qualified African American applicants, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded Thursday.

Michigan education administrators by mid-­August usually are well prepared for public school openings right after Labor Day. Not this year.

Mike Burde, veteran assistant superintendent for western Michigan’s Kenowa Hills Public Schools, says in a two-week period he and his associates moved from planning a mix of school and home learning, to all classroom with strict social distancing, to all online: “It’s planning in the arena of the unknowns.”

More than 4,500 of the nation’s nearly 131,000 public schools have adopted The New York Times’ 1619 Project history curriculum against the advice of some historians and lawmakers. Sen.