Back-to-school safety: What parents need to know and do as students return to classrooms

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Getting children ready to go back to school and into the classroom is already a stressful situation. Add to that the contagious delta variant and the fact that other types of viruses are on the rise.

So what do parents need to know to navigate a safe back to school plan?

Zoom was fine last year, but third grader Suhani Roonval misses learning in person.

"For the last year, I couldn't go to school, and I couldn't meet my friends and I couldn't play with them," Suhani said.

"School is very important for these kids and we don't want to, by any means, keep them out of school any longer," said pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Priya Soni with Cedars-Sinai.

"The 'twin-demic' that we were worried about with flu and COVID, now we're starting to think now it might be RSV and COVID," Soni said.

RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) symptoms are similar to COVID-19. It's most detrimental to young children, but older kids can play a part in spreading. Pediatricians say any type of illness will be considered COVID until it's ruled out, which means a disruption in your child's learning because it'll require testing and missing school.

"We're seeing that the kids are also being a big part of the transmission of this," Soni said.

While the data still shows children are less likely to have serious symptoms, Soni said a rise in pediatric cases could lead to a rise in the more serious, but rare, multi-inflammatory syndrome in children.

"Ask me in about a month or two, and then I might have a different answer," Soni said. "But for now, we haven't seen an acute rise and MIS-C cases."

So how can you prepare? Soni said kids 12 and older should get vaccinated. Get your children ready to wear masks.

And to minimize introducing illnesses from outside our area, she suggested not traveling right before school starts.

"Make sure you at least have that buffer of seven to 10 days before you reinstate them in school," Soni said. "You want to give your child and your family the best start."