"If they laugh at me about a personal story about my grandmother, that's just disrespectful, I feel," Tennessee teenager Grady Knox reportedly said.

Louisiana's K-12 students started the school year almost fully in-person. But almost two weeks after Hurricane Ida hit, more than 250,000 students are again waiting for their classrooms to reopen.

Angeline Murimirwa leads CAMFED, a group that has given scholarships to 4.8 million girls in Africa. And now the group has been awarded the $2.5 million Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

Protests continue at Georgia State University over the lack of mask or vaccine mandates on campus.

The Los Angeles Unified School District voted Thursday to require students 12 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The board said the vote was about protecting students, not violating rights.

On Thursday, the president announced a series of actions to encourage K-12 schools to mandate masks for all and require vaccines for employees.

The best way to prevent COVID-19 and spread of the virus is through vaccination and masking. That’s what Board of Regents Acting Chancellor Teresa MacCartney says.   

But she and the Board also agree with the governor that mandates cause division on campus. And they will not be swayed by protests.

Former U.S. Education Department official Robert Shireman is asking The Wall Street Journal to correct a story from 2013 that continues to fuel false accusations. The paper has declined his request.

Those who died include teachers, bus drivers, a security worker and a cafeteria manager. "It is a bruising statistic that we need to absolutely internalize," said Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho.

The university was the victim of a ransomware attack over the weekend and has suspended online and hybrid undergraduate courses.

One professor at Kennesaw State University says he was not allowed to switch to online classes after the majority of students chose not to wear masks despite rising cases of COVID-19. 

In a wave of lawsuits, families are arguing that restrictions on mask mandates infringe on disability rights, forcing children to choose between their health and their education.

The schooling challenges from the first year of the pandemic remain. Another disrupted school year means the pandemic's academic and emotional impact on children will persist unless addressed.

Fierce competition to get children into the top schools has spawned an aggressive parenting culture, named for a traditional medicine treatment in which chicken blood is injected to stimulate energy.

NPR's Michel Martin talks with Councilman Craig Rice and student Julia Angel about public schools in Montgomery County, Md., opening without police officers for the first time in 19 years.