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College dorms are closed. Athletic events are canceled. Classes have moved online. Like so many sectors of the U.S. economy, higher education is taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic. In March, Congress set aside more than $14 billion to help colleges and universities weather the outbreak. Here’s where most of that money has gone and why many colleges are holding out for more:

School district superintendents – those responsible for making decisions about how and when to reopen schools – are planning to follow detailed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was shelved by the White House last month instead of the official guidance published Thursday.

Education officials have been clamoring for more thorough direction from the Trump administration as to how and when they can safely reopen schools, but the long-awaited CDC guidance published to its web site last night – a one-page decision tree – left them underwhelmed.

The young rappers recorded their videos in kitchens, laundry rooms, garages, bedrooms and outdoors. 

With beats and rhymes, the teens open a window into their lives during the pandemic. Some videos are somber. Others take a lighter approach. But the underlying theme that comes through is that COVID-19 is no joke.

A new set of regulations from the U.S. Department of Education will change how colleges and universities handle sexual misconduct. For some Texas schools, the changes will be harder to adjust to than others.

The federal regulations, released May 6, are the result of about three years of efforts by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to rescind Obama-era practices and implement new standards for addressing sexual misconduct on college campuses under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination.

One afternoon this week, Celeste Torres, a sociology student at the University of California at San Diego, stopped by a self-serve testing station to perform a five-minute ritual that could hold the key to reopening college campuses nationwide amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

The decision was groundbreaking: students have a right to literacy, a federal appeals court ruled last month, prompted by the dire performance and the sometimes horrific conditions of Detroit’s public schools.

But it wasn’t clear then whether that decision would be quickly appealed and overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Thursday, there was an answer: Michigan officials settled the case.

In one household, a mother has taken on the role of three adults to meet the emotional, educational and physical needs of her partially paralyzed teenage daughter. 

Across town, a mom facing homelessness has turned a hotel room into a home and school for her family of five, and a son with ADHD. 

In another home, a mother of a son with Autism is watching their relationship change as she takes on the role of educator and therapist.

Earlier this school year, the first graders at the Hampton Street School were about to take a coding class, something they’ve been doing since kindergarten. “Coding gives us another way to solve our problems,” Diane Nodell, the library media specialist, reminded them. “Are you ready to learn the basics?” 

Colleges change with the times. New Jersey’s colonial theological seminaries are today’s leading research universities; its teacher training colleges expanded to liberal arts; and an education once reserved for white wealthy males is now open to all.

Higher education is on the cusp of another transformation, but not for occupational or societal reasons: the drivers this time are a coronavirus pandemic that sent students home for virtual learning and a gutted economy some fear might keep them there.

Lisa Parady is the executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators. She said she’s heard similar struggles and challenges around unfilled positions from administrators all over the state including Chugach, Alaska Gateway and Haines school districts.  

Schools were struggling with teacher, principal and superintendent turnover even before the pandemic, Parady said. 

When school buildings reopen, many teachers might not be there.

About 18 percent of all teachers are aged 55 or older. That age group accounts for about 92 percent of deaths in the United States due to COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although adults who are 65 and older are most at risk. Teachers with underlying medical conditions, such as asthma or diabetes, are also at high risk for severe illness caused by the coronavirus.

Most springs, the Pasco school district celebrates its middle and high school turnaround students with a full buffet luncheon, live music, and inspirational speeches aimed at conveying the value they place on the teens who have overcome obstacles to find success.

Social distancing squashed that opportunity for this season. But organizer Ramón Suarez, who oversees the district’s graduation enhancement program, refused to allow the recognition to disappear.

When students return to the classroom this fall, school could look very different.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that schools were considering different options for keeping students apart and limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus.

One scenario: Some students would attend classes in person for two days then another group would attend in-person classes on two different days.

“I’m not saying that’s where we end up,” DeWine said. “My recommendation to schools is to look at different options. Come up with what is unique to you.”

May 7 is the date that Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, declared it was safe to open up schools. The state has had fewer than 500 reported cases of the coronavirus as of this week.

At first, Rosalie Ngatchou wanted to go far away to college, to see more of the world and gain independence. A senior at a D.C. charter school, she cast her eyes to an outpost of the State University of New York in Oswego on Lake Ontario.

Now, like many college-bound students, she’s thinking local.

Her mother’s day-care business has closed. Money is tighter. Familiar surroundings feel safer. So Ngatchou is taking a second look at schools closer to home: University of the District of Columbia and George Mason University in Northern Virginia.

As COVID-19 shut down its schools, Hamilton County, Tennessee, was ideally situated for the switch to virtual learning. At least in theory.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday issued final rules for how public and private schools and colleges must address allegations of sexual misconduct, locking in protections for accused students and faculty but tempering earlier proposals that critics said would harm victims of assault and harassment.

Kindergarten is already a time of momentous change for most kids.

Priorities have to be established — how much play time vs. snack time — and lessons have to be learned — the alphabet, numbers and coins, to name a few.

But the pandemic that has disrupted the first year in school for this year’s bunch has made their time of transition that much more challenging.

Over the past week, the Sun-Times spoke to a half-dozen Chicago-area kindergartners, who put the coronavirus pandemic in perspective — their perspective.

Southwest Georgia has seen its share of disasters over the past few years, including tornadoes and hurricanes in 2017 and 2018 that tore through the community, destroying farms and homes and temporarily disrupting schools.

But nothing so far compares to how coronavirus has ravaged this corner of the state, anchored by Albany, the region’s largest city.

At lunchtime on a recent weekday, Shelise Harding and Christine David wheeled a tray cart to the walk-in refrigerator in the kitchen of John Ruhrah Elementary/Middle School and loaded it with boxed-to-go meals they’d prepared: fruit, vegetables, tuna sandwiches, crackers, bread and milk.

Bypassing the school’s empty lunch line and the cafeteria tables bearing boxes of Maryland Food Bank donations, food service workers rolled cart after cart of meals to a waiting line of students, parents and others in need at one of the school’s entrances.