I've been reporting on school segregation and educational inequality for more than 20 years, since my very first job as a cub reporter covering the Durham Public Schools in North Carolina. But in 2016, I got personal when I wrote a cover story for this magazine about my decision to enroll my daughter in a segregated, high-poverty school in New York City — one of the most deeply unequal school districts in the nation. Since then, I have heard constantly from readers who have shared their own tough choices about where to send their children to school, and who never failed to ask about mine.

So, in the 10-year anniversary of that essay, I decided to revisit that decision and tell the story of how it went. This is one of the most difficult stories I have ever written.