This story was originally published on July 10, 2020. As part of MedPage Today's review of the past year's top stories, we are republishing it, along with an update on school reopenings, reviewing subsequent developments in 2020. As school officials debate whether to reopen this fall, physicians, teachers, and a prominent ethicist markedly disagreed on whether sending children back into the classroom is safe for their communities. Some pediatricians are driving the push to reopen, while infectious disease specialists, family physicians, and teachers appear more wary, concerned that schools could become "new hotspots for the virus." At the heart of the debate are many unanswered questions, with arguably the most important being: How often are children infected, and how contagious are their infections?