You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

I don't know about you, but I could not imagine being a kid or a teenager in school right now.

And if you are a kid or a teenager in school right now, you are heroic, amazing, inspiring,

learning anything right now.

At a time when our education system is writing out this pandemic is hard.

You don't need me to tell you that it brings a whole host of challenges, including mental health challenges.

So we want to make space for that topic today.

We're bringing reporting from shortwave favorite re2 strategy and education correspondent Anya Kamenens

about how students are doing and what can be done to support them.

Reto and Anya spoke with all things considered host Elsa Chang this week.

Thanks for listening to shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR.

From NPR News, this is all things considered. I'm Ari Shapiro in Washington.

And I'm Elsa Chang in Los Angeles.

Anyone with school-aged children knows the last week has been really rough.

Thousands of schools around the country have shifted to remote learning

and those staying open are dealing with students and staff out sick, the burden of testing and masking,

and everything it takes to stay open during the midst of a pandemic.

We're going to spend the next several minutes now talking about how this moment and the last two years of disruption

have affected the mental health and development of children.

NPR Health correspondent Rita Chatterjee and NPR Education correspondent Anya Kamenens are here with us to talk us through all of this.

Hey to both of you. Hi. Hello. Hey Anya, so I want to start with you.

Can you just walk us through what we know at this point about how kids have been learning?

...