It was the first day of school at California Creative Academy, a charter school in Los Angeles, where 5-year-old Eli is newly enrolled in kindergarten. And the long-term impact on these “Covid kindergarteners” remains unclear. Masked school children wait to have their portraits taken during picture day at Rogers International School on September 23, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. This district has a fix In many places, kindergartners are as likely to be chronically absent as high school seniors, but one school district in rural California is doing something about it. Only 70% of kindergarten students are testing at expected grade level, compared to the 2019 cohort, which was at 84% in 2019.