A Tennessee judge on July 4 denied the release of the Covenant School shooter's writings, stating that doing so might present a security risk to the Nashville private school.

The pandemic’s babies, toddlers and preschoolers are now school-age, and the impact on them is becoming increasingly clear: Many are showing signs of being academically and developmentally behind.

Interviews with more than two dozen teachers, pediatricians and early childhood experts depicted a generation less likely to have age-appropriate skills — to be able to hold a pencil, communicate their needs, identify shapes and letters, manage their emotions or solve problems with peers.

Black marker in hand, Nick Baar returned to the whiteboard. The newly minted math tutor wrote an equation for the eighth-graders in front of him:

25 x 199

The rules were simple: No calculators or pencils allowed. Baar wanted to see if his students at Perry Street Preparatory, a charter school in Northeast Washington, could solve the problem in their heads. They had breezed through an earlier problem — 25 x 200 — but now appeared stumped. The group sat in silence.

Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s foremost public-health official during the coronavirus pandemic, admitted in a recent interview that school closures went on for too long.

“Shutting down everything immediately — and we didn’t shut it down completely — but essentially major social distancing and even schools was the right thing,” Fauci told CBS during an interview to promote his new memoir. Fauci worked in the federal government for decades and at one point was the highest paid federal employee.

Dr. Anthony Fauci backtracked his support Tuesday for a COVID-19 mitigation method which closed down schools throughout the country, calling the strategy a “mistake.”

Fauci helped lead the nation's initial response to COVID-19 as part of the Trump administration. In an interview with CBS Mornings this week, the former National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases (NIAID) director explained school closures were necessary at the very beginning of the pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is reflecting on some of the actions taken in response to the COVID pandemic, including school closures, which have led to a learning loss across the country. 

The initial closure was not a mistake, he said Tuesday on "CBS Mornings," but questions the length schools were kept shut. 

Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis have spent years hurling political and policy grenades from their blue and red state capitols — the personification of a nation riven by partisan warring.

But the California Democrat and the Florida Republican now find themselves converging on an issue that’s gained a surprising amount of bipartisan support: outright banning, or severely curtailing, children from using smartphones at schools.

That doesn’t mean the popular policy will erase the long-running grudge match.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to restrict the use of smartphones in the state’s public schools, according to an article from Politico that was published Tuesday. 

The announcement, made exclusively to Politico, comes a day after Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy argued in a New York Times op-ed that social media platforms are damaging enough to the mental health of adolescents that Congress should require the platforms to come with a warning label, similar to the ones you find on tobacco products. 

Florida’s Republican governor and California’s Democratic governor rarely find common ground, but they may have found their bipartisan commonplace: social media restrictions for children.

Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Gavin Newsom (D-CA) have agreed in recent weeks that social media poses some inherent harm to children and should be restricted. The agreement likely won’t push away the pair’s feud, but it “underscores the scope of this problem,” according to California Republican Assemblyman Josh Hoover.

Near the edge of the Phoenix metro’s urban sprawl, surrounded by a wide expanse of saguaro-studded scrubland, Dream City Christian School is in the midst of a major expansion.