As COVID drags on and schools suffer, kids’ anxiety is rising. Here’s what we can do

It seems like everywhere you look, there’s bad news for children stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

After months in which kids were largely unaffected, cases among the young are rising at an alarming rate. Hospitalizations caused by the virus are at dangerous levels, including in Dallas-Fort Worth and much of the rest of Texas.

It’s still mercifully true that children remain largely protected from the worst COVID effects. Otherwise healthy children typically do not become dangerously ill, and very few children die.

But countless others feel the effect in their lives, and it presents both short- and long-term challenges that parents, educators and mental health professionals must grapple with to ensure the COVID generation isn’t a lost one.

The return to complete in-person school poses challenges beyond the well-documented “learning loss” in key areas such as reading and math. Many students are dealing with anxiety and stress, even to the point of increased panic attacks.

Of course, the new normal is anything but. Schools are in turmoil over absences, students and teachers alike, caused by COVID or exposure to it. Thousands are missing from campuses every day, and many have to nervously await the results of a virus test if exposed. Teacher shortages, already a problem in growing Texas, are compounded by retirements and departures over burnout.

In short, it’s hard to imagine such a sweeping set of stressors for children, especially with such potentially lasting effects.

The ultimate solution, as with all of our COVID battles, is vaccination. As President Joe Biden said in announcing new vaccine requirements for federal employees and businesses, the protection that vaccines provide against serious illness are nearly complete. The best thing parents of those 12 and older can do for their children is get them vaccinated and teach them about the overwhelming safety and effectiveness of the shots.

Of course, younger children still aren’t eligible. Ensuring the vaccines are safely available for children should be an urgent national priority. A top official with BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner in one of the top vaccines, said recently that the companies would soon ask regulators for approval of a smaller dose for those as young as 5. It can’t happen soon enough.

Fights over mask mandates in schools continue. Evidence about how well they work for students remains mixed, but while the delta variant is raging, mandates make sense for local districts. The Fort Worth school district was perhaps the only one in Texas not able to impose one, thanks to a Tarrant County state district judge’s injunction. That’s now on hold as the district appeals, and starting Monday, face coverings will be required.

The burden for helping many children is upon school counselors, who report troubling increases in students struggling with anxiety with school back in session. They’ll need support and new resources from administrators, and top district leaders should consider whether they have enough counselors to ensure students get the attention they need.

Flexibility and patience are a must. Some children will need more help, and if they continue to struggle, targeted virtual learning makes sense. Many districts have foregone an online option, a sensible decision considering the clear limitations of learning-by-screen. But there are individual cases in which it may be preferable.

This is an opportunity to teach valuable lessons about risk and resilience. Children’s fears about the virus shouldn’t be dismissed, but adults in their lives should help them understand that the danger is still minimal for healthy children. All of us must learn to be cautious and prudent about COVID risks. The virus may be with us forever in one form or another, and children must learn to live with it, respecting its dangers without letting it rule, or in some cases ruin, their lives.

Another positive lesson can be the importance of mental health. The pressures of the pandemic have helped to destigmatize mental health issues, but there remains a hesitance to seek help.

Making that help more readily available, especially to children, will help build resilience. And that will serve them through these trying months and for the rest of their lives.