5280 It’s Been One Year Since Students Started Widespread Distance Learning As the COVID-19 pandemic raged across Colorado, hundreds of thousands of the state’s schoolchildren were stuck at home, learning in basements and at kitchen tables. What does this past year mean for their futures—and for the future of education in the Centennial State?Robert Sanchez • One day this past winter, a Denver Public Schools (DPS) fifth grader phoned a therapist who was helping her cope with her anxiety. She missed her friends and needed to talk. A single mom a few miles south in Littleton called her teenage sons from work one weekday, just to make sure they were doing OK with everything. In northeastern Colorado, a mother couldn’t get through the day without worrying about her four children, one of whom was in middle school and recently had asked the family’s Alexa device for advice on how to put an end to his suicidal thoughts.