This article collected detailed primary data—the Elementary School Operating Status database (ESOS)—to measure the percentage of school districts offering in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction models for elementary schools by state in September 2020 to understand the nature and magnitude of school closures across states during the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on maternal labor force participation. The article shows that schools are a vital source of care for young children, and that without in-person instruction, mothers have been sidelined from the labor force.

This article uses agent-based simulations in three “artificial societies” (one predominantly religious; one predominantly secular; and one in between), to demonstrate that worldview pluralism within one’s neighborhood and family social networks can be a significant predictor of religious (dis)affiliation but in pluralistic societies worldview diversity is less important and, instead, people move toward worldview neutrality.