Students and parents share Covid-19 concerns as the school year starts

President Biden was just asked to respond to some Republican governors who have called his vaccine requirements an overreach and have suggested it may be challenged in court.

He continued: "We're playing for real here. This isn't a game. And I don't know of any scientist out there in this field that doesn't think it makes us considerable sense to do the six things I've suggested."

Biden also lamented the political polarization in the nation as some Republican governors have issued statewide bans on mask mandates and vaccines have become an area of deep division. 

“One of the lessons I hope our students are going to learn is that politics doesn’t have to be this way… They’re growing up in an environment where they see it’s like a war. Like a bitter feud. If the Democrat says right, everybody says left… It’s not who we are as a nation and it’s not how we beat every other crisis in our country. We gotta come together,” he said.

Yesterday, Biden unveiled a six-pronged plan to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and stringent new vaccine rules on federal workers, large employers and health care staff.

The new requirements could apply to as many as 100 million Americans — close to two-thirds of the American workforce — and amount to Biden's strongest push yet to require vaccines for much of the country.

CNN's Betsy Klein contributed reporting to this post.

President Biden urged parents to vaccinate their children against Covid-19 today while visiting a school in Washington, DC.

Currently, children 12 and older are eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Children under 12 remain ineligible.

Biden went on to say that his administration would work to bring vaccine clinics to schools as well.

Some background: On Thursday, Biden unveiled a six-step Covid-19 plan, which includes vaccine requirements for educators in federal Head Start programs. Biden will also call on governors to require vaccinations for schoolteachers and staff.

The President promised to make up the salary of any teacher or administrator whose pay was withheld by a state opposing mask requirements.

Infections and hospitalizations among kids are rising, which worries experts, but they are still the least likely age group to get sick or die from the virus. Among recent infections, more than a quarter were children, but less than 3% of hospitalizations are for children. Some younger kids develop an inflammatory ailment — MISC-C —after contracting Covid-19. That can keep them hospitalized for weeks.

"Now for any parent, it doesn't matter how low the risk of any illnesses whether it could happen to your child. But we all know if schools follow the science and they are here and implement safety measures, like vaccinations, testing, masking, and children could be safe in schools, safe from Covid-19. My plan does all of these things," Biden said today.

Reporting from CNN's Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this post.

While visiting a school in Washington, DC, today, President Biden urged parents to vaccinate their children against Covid-19, sweetening the deal by inviting vaccinated kids to the White House.

"I'm going to get in trouble with the Secret Service and everybody else," Biden said in what appeared to be an impromptu invite.

"I'm not sure how we'll mechanically do it, but I assume the buses can get you to the White House and if we can't get you all in one room, we'll be out in the Rose Garden or out in the back there, and maybe let you fly the helicopters. I'm only joking about that," Biden added.

President Biden is delivering remarks on how the administration is helping keep students safe in classrooms.

The President is visiting a local school in Washington, DC, alongside Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

Biden's remarks come as more US children are getting hit hard by Covid-19. A record-high 2,396 children were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Tuesday, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. While childhood Covid-19 deaths are still rare, that number is increasing. As of Wednesday, at least 520 children have died, according to CDC data.

The President on Thursday announced a major expansion to free testing, a step public health officials have said is critical to containing the virus, particularly as children return to school and some workers return to offices.

Biden also imposed stringent new vaccine rules on federal workers, large employers and health care staff in a sweeping attempt to contain the latest surge of Covid-19.

CNN's Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins contributed reporting to this post. 

All eligible children attending Los Angeles Unified public schoo— -- the nation's second largest school distri—ct -- will be required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of the calendar year, the school board of education has voted.

In a special meeting held Thursday, the Los Angeles Unified School Board decided a mandate was appropriate based on the sudden surge of the virus brought about by the Delta variant and data showing lower rates of infection and hospitalization among those who are vaccinated.

The proposal approved Thursday requires all eligible students 12 years of age and older to receive their first Covid-19 vaccine doses by no later than November 21, and their second doses by no later than December 19. Students who participate in in-person extracurricular activities, including sports, face an earlier deadline of October 3 for a first dose of the vaccine and a second dose no later than October 31.

The district, which includes more than 600,000 students, already mandates the vaccine for teachers and staff, requires face coverings be worn by all, and tests all students and staff for infections weekly. Classrooms have also been outfitted with enhanced ventilation systems in an effort to decrease the spread of the virus.

District spokesperson Shannon Haber was not able to provide the number of students affected by Thursday's decision, but noted that many students have already been inoculated.

President Biden, speaking from the White House Thursday, said he will sign an executive order requiring all federal workers be vaccinated against Covid-19, with no option of being regularly tested to opt out of the requirement.

The President said he will also sign an executive order directing the same standard be extended to employees of contractors who do business with the federal government. The Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service and National Institutes of Health will also complete their previously announced vaccination requirements, which the White House estimates covers 2.5 million workers.

The new announcements move beyond what Biden announced earlier this summer, when he required federal workers be vaccinated but allowed for those who opted out to be subject to stringent mitigation measures. The White House has said the federal government should act as a model for other businesses in their own vaccine mandates, and has praised large companies that require employees to be vaccinated.

If being a first-generation college student wasn't challenging enough, Alicia Barron has had to contend with transitions from online classes to in-person instruction all while the pandemic persists.

Barron, of Aurora, Colorado, is a sophomore at Colorado State University studying political science and French.

Barron is not alone in her stress.

National dropout numbers for this school year are yet to be released, but anecdotal evidence from across the country shows steep declines in attendance, a rising number of failing grades, and shrinking enrollment.

The economic impact of the pandemic means some older students may have had to take a job to make up for one lost by a family member. Or they've had to step up to handle child care for siblings or their own kids.

"Since the pandemic, life has been hard, but I am pushing through my education and hopefully one day, be able to give back to my parents in all that they did for me," Barron said.

After teaching for nearly two decades at numerous elementary, middle and high schools around Fort Collins, Colorado, Randy Black was forced into retirement due to health conditions that made him more susceptible to Covid-19.

When the last school district he worked for announced they would be returning to in-person instruction this year, Black, 68, considered it "a life or death decision and I chose life."

Black, a former math and science teacher, suffers from asthma and takes three prescriptions for it.

Black is currently looking at a retirement job in wellness coaching using traditional Chinese medicine to supplement his pension, he said.

A student of history: Black said the time he spent studying the 1918 flu prepared him for what the coronavirus pandemic would become.

The 1918 flu killed 50 million to 100 million people through 1919. There are eerie parallels between the 1918 flu and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic: a disease with a startling range of symptoms for which there is little treatment, human behavior as a hindrance to public health and cluster outbreaks that have become widespread, to name a few.

The startling and harrowing nature of the 1918 flu and its fatal consequences induced a sense of caution that, in some places, had permanent implications for how people would respond to disease outbreaks in later decades — such as using isolation and quarantine, according to a 2010 paper by Nancy Tomes, a distinguished professor of history at Stony Brook University.

Taliyah Rice returns next week for her final year of high school in suburban Chicago. She's anxious about going back to in-person learning, but it has little to do with coronavirus fears or first-day jitters.

Taliyah is mostly worried about facing social pressures she hasn't had to deal with in more than a year. Virtual learning, she said, helped her to thrive in class and engage more with her studies than she did in person.

"For online classes, you don't have to worry about trying to fit in, who will talk to you in the hallways," she told CNN. "I struggle with social anxiety and overthinking. Virtual school made it so much easier for me. I didn't have to deal with some of those pressures."

As schools reopen across the US, many children are excited to get back into classrooms with their friends. But for some others, especially kids with social anxiety, online learning was a welcome respite from bullying and the stress of trying to fit in. For them returning to school, with its classroom dynamics and cafeteria social pressures, can feel daunting.

Taliyah, a straight-A student, transferred to her school in Chicago Heights as a sophomore and spent her whole junior year doing virtual classes. So now she's returning to school without much chance to get to know her classmates -- something that's added to her anxiety.

The high school senior says she felt more comfortable interacting with teachers and fellow students online during the pandemic. She's felt at ease asking questions in class from the safety of home.

"For children with social anxiety, virtual learning took away the social pressures to look or act a certain way," said Robyn Mehlenbeck, director of the Center for Psychological Services at George Mason University. "There were fewer pressures to dress a certain way, cameras were often off so no one could see their expressions and there was less pressure to verbally participate in front of others."

And as the Delta variant drives another surge in Covid-19 cases, shifting rules about mask wearing and other school procedures are also causing confusion and stress among students planning their return to classrooms.

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