Town hall on safe solutions for schools, students amid COVID

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- This year, back to school is brings with it new concerns. ABC7's Building a Better Bay Area Back to School week takes a look at the science and solutions for COVID-safe schools, plus the challenging mental health issues for students and teachers.

Experts in education, along with students, teachers, and families will share insight into what's worked so far and what the future may look like.

Monday :

Learning Loss - A look at learning loss and how districts will try to tackle the big issue.

Priorities - Helping kids get back to in-person learning by setting priorities.

Back to Mack - We go back to McClymonds High School and see how the school year is going so far.

Tuesday :

Distance Learning - A look at what distance learning will look like for those who have not decided to return to in-school learning.

Back to School Shopping - We look at what this year's back to school shopping looks like for retailers compared to last year.

Back to School Testing - Here's a look at a new software that track's students learning in real-time and gives feed back to teachers.

Wednesday:

Mental Health - How are districts, teachers and students dealing with the anxiety and mental health issues associated with returning to school?

Kids Vaccine - A look at vaccine trials for kids younger than 12-years-old.

Thursday:

AP Courses - We use Department of Education data to identify which schools offer advanced coursework to their students and whether there's a difference between schools attended by students of different racial and ethnic groups.

Back to Work - One hurdle to having people return to physical offices was the need to be home with kids who were doing distance learning. With that hurdle removed by most returning to the classroom, what is the status of offices reopening?

Friday:

Discipline at Schools - We look at Department of Education data that shows the rates of school days missed because of discipline by racial and ethnic groups and look at the disparities in schools for Black students and Latino students in particular.

Town Hall - We bring together experts from the medical field, mental health, and education to answer tough questions and discuss future solutions for students and schools. Watch in the video player at the top of this post.

Take a look at our past stories below:

BACK-TO-SCHOOL WEEK STORIES & VIDEOS:

• Retailers banking on big comeback in back to school shopping
• Oakland students and teachers deal with vaccination requirements as school resumes
• San Francisco teachers, parents, nonprofit tackle kids' priorities together as school resumes
• Bay Area school districts ready to tackle learning loss after year of online learning
• Here's how South Bay school custodian is ensuring safe return for students, staff
• State Superintendent Thurmond hosts vaccine town hall
• Gov. Newsom announces all CA teachers must be vaccinated or tested weekly
• Back-to-school anxiety 'definitely different' as San Jose teachers return to full-in-person learning
• Back to school: Stanford doctor ranks best mask types for kids in the classroom

OTHER RELATED STORIES & VIDEOS:

• Experts explain why returning to school is safe despite fears over Delta variant
• Fauci says he supports COVID vaccine mandate for teachers
• How masks impact the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant in a classroom
• MAINTAINING LEARNING: Free educational resources for kids stuck at home

Check out more stories and videos about Building a Better Bay Area.