What to know about back-to-school anxiety in kids as Chicago Public Schools students return to class

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Public Schools students go back to class on Aug. 18. There will be lots of smiling and first-day-of-school pictures.

And for many children, there is a lot of anxiety about things such as academic pressures and making friends.

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A 2023 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that emergency department visits by children ages 10 to 17 for mental and behavioral health conditions increased an average of 54%, between summer and fall. That study looked at the years 2018 to 2023.

"A lot of what I see in the teenagers is more social anxiety and the kind of generalized worry patterns," said Lurie Children's Hospital Head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Dr. John Walkup. "And so, the socially a