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Should parents send kids with chronic illnesses back to the classroom? There are no easy answers.

A CHKD pediatrician said there isn't enough data on how COVID-19 affects children with chronic conditions.

NORFOLK, Va. — Parents of children with chronic conditions have lots of questions about their kids' safety when school starts.

About 15 to 18 percent of children live with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or epilepsy, according to the University of Michigan.

CHKD Dr. Douglas Mitchell said weighing the risks starts with a conversation with your child's pediatrician. There are no easy answers on how safe or unsafe in-person learning will be because there isn't much data on how COVID-19 affects children. 

"Children are not little adults," he said. "We don't have the same number of infections in children to be able to say definitively that one condition is a higher risk factor than another."

While Mitchell understands the need and concern for safety, he worries that children are getting too far behind academically by staying out of the classroom. He points to concerns expressed by the American Academy of Pediatrics about the combination of benefits children are missing by staying home, such as social skills, mental health support, and healthy meals.

"It's very clear that this at-home order -- as necessary as it is -- is putting some of our highest risk children at the greatest disadvantage," Mitchell said. "We got to weigh those risks of staying at home versus the risk or acquiring this infection."

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