This Fall, “back-to-school” will be different than anything we’ve ever experienced. Parents are grappling with in-person or distance learning and many school districts are still deciding on the safest way to start the academic year: full-time in-person, full-time remote, or a hybrid of the two. Our guest, Emily Oster, is an economist at Brown University, the author of two bestselling books about parenting, Expecting Better and Cribsheet, and a contributing author to COVID Explained, a website that takes an unbiased, data-driven look at the virus and its impacts. She explains what data and science are telling us about the risks of kids of all ages contracting and spreading COVID-19, and what needs to be considered in order to safely re-open schools.

Listen to this episode to learn:

- What the current data says about different age groups of children and their associated risks of contracting and spreading COVID-19

- The top factors – based on data – to consider when deciding whether to send your child to school or day care in-person versus have them participate in distance learning

- What the U.S. can learn from other countries, including Israel, Sweden, and Germany, that have re-opened schools for in-person instruction

- The challenges facing college and university campuses this Fall, including surveillance testing and social distancing measures

- Why parents, schools, and communities need to be realistic about planning for the inevitably of COVID-19 cases in schools

- The pros and cons of alternative learning models, like “pandemic learning pods” For more information, visit www.explaincovid.org.