While coronavirus poses a deadly threat to older people, it is young Australians who will take the heaviest hit from the longterm chaos wrought by Covid-19 — perhaps for the rest of their lives.

Although the health and economic impacts of the virus have dominated the political discussion, the extremely tough situation facing school students has received scant and inadequate attention.

Parents of school-age kids, from late primary to Year 12, are more or less on their own in determining what, if anything, is able to be salvaged from this year of disruption.