This policy paper makes use of four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) panel data to estimate changes in and the determinants of adult concern, child hunger and access to school meals amongst respondents residing in households with learners in the compulsory schooling system. The transition between Waves 2 and 3 of NIDS-CRAM from lockdown Level 3 to a less restrictive Level 1, as well as the transition from Waves 3 and 4 from Level 1 to a more restrictive adjusted Level 3, are expected to be linked to significant changes in food security and child hunger, and, potentially, adult concern about learner return given significant shifts in the number of infections and deaths. Previous education policy papers produced using Waves 1 through 3 of the NIDS-CRAM data provided discussions on learner attendance as a result of phased school reopening, and how this might be used as a proxy for the effects of the pandemic on schooling and learning. In this policy paper, we build on this using panel data from the Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS) II to estimate learning losses experienced by grade 4 learners in 2020, as well as contextual factors gathered through telephonic surveys with teachers that may help explain how teachers and learners responded. Finally, this paper presents a new analysis of deaths amongst teachers using government administrative data comparing the trends of 2020 (and the known peaks of COVID-19 infections) to those of the previous year. This new analysis presents credible information to be considered in the ongoing debate about the risks faced by teachers by going to school.