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The return to school nationwide is also coinciding with a surge in cases among young people, who make up a large portion of the unvaccinated in the United States. More than 121,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported among kids last week, another \"substantial\" increase from weeks prior, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association said in a report Monday.

Pediatric coronavirus-related hospital admissions now equal the most seen at any point of the pandemic.

Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains \"uncommon\" among children, the two organizations wrote in the report, but they warned that there is an urgent need to collect more data on long-term impacts, \"including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects.\"

The rise in cases has fueled concerns that students will not be able to stay in school without frequent COVID scares sending them back to remote learning.

\"PHOTO:
ABC News
PHOTO: U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona tours P.S. 5 Port Morris in the Bronx, as students decorate for the return to school in the fall.
>

\"Delta is different, so we must pay attention to transmission rates, to what we're learning about the delta variant, and we as educators have to be nimble to make sure we're addressing what we're learning from our health experts,\" Cardona said. \"Again, it's really important that we work in tandem with our health experts to make sure we have a safe school reopening.\"

But Cardona stressed that students should not fall back into remote-learning options because the benefits of the classroom still outweigh the risks.

\"Students learn best in the classroom. We know that. And we have to give them an opportunity to get into the classroom to build relationships,\" Cardona said.

Asked if the CDC should tailor guidelines for schools with lower vaccination rates, Cardona said he's confident those rates will rise once children return to the classroom because of the effort to reach kids in one place -- education and pop-up clinics targeting kids at school.

\"I'm really confident that when school gets started, and our communities come back, they're gonna look to the schools to be a place where they can get vaccinated,\" he said.

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