On a June afternoon, I picked up my children from their last day of school. It was a school year my county government tried to deny us. And it only happened because hundreds of parents, teachers, rabbis, and principals were willing to fight for it. I played a role in the fight to allow our schools to open, and it was the most important work I’ve ever done.

Now that we got the school year in, I feel an amazing sense of relief. We never closed, there were no bad cases, no large outbreaks. But I am still almost overwhelmed by a persisting bitterness that our county government tried to ban in-person schooling. Officials said sending our kids to school would be unsafe. We knew they were wrong. Then we proved it. We had the school year and it was safe.