This article describes how Culver City Unified School District in California became the first district in the nation to require vaccines for eligible students.

This press release from California Governor Gavin Newsom's office details how the state is allocating funding for on-site rapid COVID-19 testing to those districts that have been hit hardest by the pandemic.

This news article attributes California's decline in positive cases to the state's skyrocketing vaccination rate, with more than 77% of the population inoculated as of September 18, 2021. The state's positivity rate is at a national low of 25 cases per 100,000 people.

This article from LPI's President and CEO shares data, the latest science, and examples of how to protect students, educators, and others in schools to ensure a safe return to in-person learning—a critical goal after the disruption to learning since the pandemic hit the United States.

This press release explains that after following 12,000 recipients for 6 months to observe long-term safety outcomes, the FDA has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in individuals age 16 and older. The vaccine had previously received only emergency use authorization (EUA) for this population. The EUA still applies for individuals age 12 through 15.

This press release describes new state investments to support a return to in-person instruction and expanded learning, as well as vaccination priorities for teaching staff, data reporting requirements, and establishment of a State Safe Schools team to monitor outbreaks.

This article describes the required COVID-19 testing of all Los Angeles Unified School District students and staff before the start of school, which provides the district with a baseline for future surveillance testing.

This news article summarizes two September 2021 CDC reports and emphasizes that pediatric hospitalizations were more than three times higher in less vaccinated states, underscoring the importance of widespread vaccination among eligible adults and children. The studies find that the Delta variant does not appear to cause more severe illness in children but is much more transmissible.

This news report explains that all New York City public school teachers and other staffers will have to receive at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by September 27.

This news article reveals that in districts where masks were optional, schools have had to close because of large COVID-19 outbreaks.

This news article describes the perspective of many California students on masking as the school year starts up.

This article, also playable as a podcast, describes the obstacles Rhode Island faced when operating in-person instruction during the pandemic. The state department of health determined that cases within a school were usually linked to out-of-school gatherings.