You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, Shortwaveers, Regina Barber here, and for many of us, the school year is finally

wrapping up.

It has been a year.

The dips and surges of the COVID-19 pandemic have kept us in and out of school and work.

What about in your house, Ari?

Same.

Thankfully for everyone here in my home more in, been out.

That's Ari Daniel, Science reporter extraordinaire.

Hey there, Regina, host extraordinaire.

A lot of schools have managed to stay open this year using all kinds of strategies.

And I want to talk to you about one community, near me, that relied on a special program

to help keep its classrooms from closing.

I visited Free Town Elementary School in southeastern Massachusetts, and there are two police

cruisers just outside bouncing feverishly on their shots.

You might think I had an elephant in the back or something.

You know what I mean?

But it's a 56 pound lab.

Whoa, that's a big dog.

Yes.

Captain Paul Douglas runs Bristol County's Canine Unit, and Hunter is that pup.

Hence the bouncing, but do you mean Hunter?

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