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He reminded that vaccine requirements in schools are \"nothing new.\"

\"You got them vaccinated for all kinds of other things -- measles, mumps, rubella -- for them to go to school, to be able to play sports, they've had to have those vaccinations,\" he added. \"It is safe, and it's convenient, and we'll work to bring the vaccine clinics to our schools as well.\"

\"PHOTO:
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
PHOTO: President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden tour Brookland Middle School, Sept. 10, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
>

Praising local vaccine incentives already in play, Biden, seemingly going off script, also offered the students at Brooklyn Middle School a visit to the White House once they're all vaccinated.

\"I'm going to get in trouble with the Secret Service and everybody else. I'm not sure how we're going to mechanically do it, but I assume the buses can get you to the White House and if we can't get you all in one room. We'll be out in the Rose Garden or out in the back there and maybe let you fly the helicopter,\" Biden said to laughter. \"I'm only joking about that.\"

The first lady, who returned to teaching this week and has been an advocate for keeping kids in the classroom, speaking ahead of her husband said it was the responsibility of educators and families to make schools safe for kids.

\"PHOTO:
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: First Lady Jill Biden speaks alongside President Joe Biden about coronavirus protections in schools during a visit to Brookland Middle School in Washington, D.C., Sept. 10, 2021.
>

\"We owe them a promise to keep their schools open as safe as possible. We owe them a commitment to follow the science. We owe them unity, so that we can fight the virus, not each other as we move forward,\" she said.

In his address to the nation on Thursday, Biden also promised to make up the salary of any teacher or administrator whose pay was withheld for opposing state bans on masks.

Ahead of their remarks, the Bidens visited the classroom 6th-grade science teacher Ms. Michelle Taylor and talked with students, all of whom were masked up.

The visit comes after a record-high 2,396 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday. In the last week alone, nearly 252,000 children in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, marking the largest increase of pediatric cases in a week since the pandemic began, according to a newly released weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.

ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

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