As students return to school over the next few weeks, ABC15 spoke with a pediatrician about how to prepare children for the end of summer break.
Dr. Shannon Barker, a pediatrician with Valleywise Health, said students have been in summer mode for weeks, and now it’s time to get them into school mode.
“Encouraging our children to go to the library and read some books during this time and to kind of focus our mental shift into learning and engaging and thinking, and not just staring at screens,” she said.
With the summer break, kids may be going to bed later. Barker said getting back into a good sleep routine early is important, adding that parents could have their kids start going to bed a little earlier a week before, adjusting an hour each day.
“Really making sure the kids are getting an adequate amount of sleep,” Barker said, adding that young kids in elementary school should be getting nine to ten hours of sleep.
Barker said limiting screentime is also important at this time, making sure kids are not looking at screens at least an hour or two before going to bed.
“To turn off that extra light that’s going into the brains so we can really start to wind down,” she said.
Barker says getting kids to the pediatrician and doing checkups every year is needed to monitor their growth and development. Barker said getting vaccinations up to date is also important.
However, over the years, Arizona has seen more kids get exemptions and fewer students get vaccinated before going into kindergarten
“We've been seeing a decline, mostly in the Mumps, Measles and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, I think. With that, we're seeing an increase rate of measles,” she said.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the percentage of students going into kindergarten with a personal belief exemption for one or more vaccines has increased over the years. In the 2024-2025 school year, 9% of kindergarteners received that exemption. That grew slightly from 8.1% in the year prior and is up from 6.6% in the 2021-2022 school year.
Personal belief exemptions from all vaccines are down only by a tenth of a percent from the year prior at 4.7% in the 2024-2025 school year. Medical exemptions from one or more vaccines are at .2% in the same school year.
ABC News reported that measles cases have reached the highest number in more than 30 years, according to CDC data.
“It’s the first disease of things that have been eradicated by vaccines to start to pop up because it requires such a large vaccination in the community before it starts to show up again,” Barker said of the measles. “As our vaccination rate declines, we’re going to start to see the other ones pop up as well.”
Barker encourages parents to talk to their doctors and pediatricians about any concerns they may have with vaccinations.
With kids going back to school, Barker said it’s also not uncommon for them to get sick and get sick multiple times a year.
“Those are concentrated during those school years, where they’re exposed to all those [germs]. Eating healthy foods, washing your hands hygiene, covering your mouth when you cough, these are things that you can teach your kids as we prepare to send them off to school,” she said.
Eating healthy and eating breakfast can help give your kids some fuel, Barker continued. She said it’s a good idea to make sure they get fruits and are hitting all the food groups.
“Really try to incorporate some higher protein, some higher healthy fats in our diet and not just those easy to reach carbohydrates like muffins and pancakes,” she advised.
Lastly, Barker said parents should monitor their kids’ social media and check in on their students’ mental health throughout the year.
“Just general conversations, kind of a weekly check-in. Kids don’t always come out and say they’re having problems. You might see other signs along the way. I think that’s why it’s important to have those relationships,” she said.
