Back to School: 6 Tips for Getting Into the Swing of Things

The sup­ply list is half checked off. There’s a new back­pack by the door and a water bot­tle some­where in the house that nobody has seen since June. School starts in a cou­ple of weeks, and the men­tal to-do list is get­ting long.

Some­where on that list, tucked between shoes that still fit and the first-day out­fit, are a hand­ful of health details that are easy to push to next week.

A few of them changed this year. Here’s what’s worth know­ing before the first bell.

1. Your child eats a lot of their day’s food at school

Kids take in as much as half of their dai­ly calo­ries dur­ing the school day, accord­ing to the CDC. That’s lunch, break­fast if they eat it there, and what­ev­er comes out of the vend­ing machine on the way to practice.

School meals are get­ting bet­ter on that front. New USDA rules that start­ed in July 2025 cap added sug­ars in break­fast cere­als, yogurt, and fla­vored milk, with a broad­er week­ly lim­it com­ing in 2027.

For what you pack, small changes go fur­ther than big ones:

• Switch it up. The same bag of car­rots for the third week in a row is going in the trash, and you both know it. The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics keeps a stash of kid-friend­ly recipes worth stealing.
• Give two good choic­es. Grapes or an apple. Yogurt or apple­sauce. Kids eat what they picked.
• Say why. A lunch that’s most­ly bread and crack­ers can leave them fog­gy by fifth peri­od, and old­er kids find that gen­uine­ly interesting.
• Don’t skip break­fast. Almost 18% of high school­ers skip it every sin­gle day, and CDC researchers found that skip­ping break­fast tracks with both low­er grades and worse men­tal health.

Before you buy the big jar of peanut but­ter, check your school’s aller­gy pol­i­cy. Plen­ty of build­ings restrict nuts to keep oth­er kids safe.

Not sure if your child’s growth or eat­ing habits are on track? A Duly pedi­a­tri­cian can take a look at the whole pic­ture, not just the num­ber on the scale. >

2. About half of kids aren’t drink­ing enough water

Here’s one that rarely makes the back-to-school list. In a nation­al study of kids ages 6 to 19, more than half were not ade­quate­ly hydrat­ed. Near­ly a quar­ter said they drank no plain water at all.

Water does more than quench thirst. Even mild­ly low flu­id intake makes it hard­er to con­cen­trate, and it shows up in how kids per­form on tests of atten­tion and memory.

Needs vary, but as a rough tar­get, kids ages 4 to 8 need about five cups a day. Old­er kids need clos­er to sev­en or eight.

Telling a kid to drink more water rarely works. A bot­tle with lines marked on the side does, because it turns a vague instruc­tion into some­thing they can see. If yours only wants some­thing sweet, drop some berries or a slice of orange in the water, or pack foods that are most­ly water any­way, like water­mel­on or cucumbers.

3. Write the aller­gy plan down before day one

If your child has asth­ma, food aller­gies, or sea­son­al aller­gies, the school needs a writ­ten plan. Not a con­ver­sa­tion at pick­up. A form on file, before the first bell. Start here:

• Tell the teach­ers and the school nurse about every aller­gy. Most schools col­lect this every year.
• Put in writ­ing what staff should do, step by step, if your child is exposed.
• Check that any epi­neph­rine injec­tor or res­cue inhaler is in stock, unex­pired, and going to school every sin­gle day.
• Walk the build­ing and look for trig­gers if your child has asth­ma or envi­ron­men­tal aller­gies. Old car­pet, a class pet, and the route to the gym are all worth noticing.

The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics offers free action plan forms, and your child’s provider can fill one out with you in a sin­gle visit.

Aller­gies get­ting hard­er to man­age each year? Duly aller­gy and immunol­o­gy spe­cial­ists can iden­ti­fy trig­gers with test­ing and build a plan that fits your child’s school day. >

4. Illi­nois changed the school phys­i­cal form this year

Annu­al check­ups are good for your child. In Illi­nois, they’re also some­times the dif­fer­ence between start­ing school on time and get­ting a let­ter in October.

The form is dif­fer­ent now. Illi­nois requires age-appro­pri­ate social, emo­tion­al, and devel­op­men­tal screen­ings as part of the exam, record­ed right on the Cer­tifi­cate of Child Health Exam­i­na­tion. Any exam done after Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, for this school year has to use the updat­ed form. If some­one hands you an old­er ver­sion, ask for the cur­rent one.

Who needs a phys­i­cal? Illi­nois requires an exam with­in the year before your child enters an ear­ly child­hood pro­gram, kinder­garten or first grade (if it’s their first year of school), sixth grade, or ninth grade. Kids in pro­grams with­out grade lev­els need one at ages 5, 11, and 15. Every stu­dent new to Illi­nois needs one, no mat­ter what grade they’re in.

A sports phys­i­cal won’t cov­er it. The IHSA and IESA sports form does not sat­is­fy the school require­ment, which catch­es a lot of fam­i­lies by sur­prise every August. The good news is your provider can often han­dle both in one visit.

Two more exams that sneak up on peo­ple. Kids enter­ing kinder­garten, or enter­ing an Illi­nois school for the first time in any grade, need an eye exam on the state form by Octo­ber 15. And stu­dents in kinder­garten, sec­ond, sixth, and ninth grades need a den­tal exam turned in before May 15, done with­in the 18 months before that date. Get­ting the den­tal vis­it on the cal­en­dar now beats scram­bling in April.

The dead­line has teeth. State law requires schools to keep stu­dents out if the exam or immu­niza­tion records aren’t in by Octo­ber 15, and dis­tricts can set an ear­li­er date. Sev­er­al sub­ur­ban dis­tricts use Sep­tem­ber 1, so check yours.

Need a school phys­i­cal before the dead­line? Duly pedi­a­tri­cians offer school and sports phys­i­cals across the Chica­go sub­urbs, with evening and week­end appoint­ments at many loca­tions. Sched­ule a school physical. >

5. Start the men­tal health con­ver­sa­tion before the hard week

Start­ing a new year is a lot. New teacher, new build­ing, new social map, and for some kids, a knot in the stom­ach that shows up around mid-August and does­n’t ful­ly leave.

For many teens, it runs deep­er than nerves. In the CDC’s most recent nation­al sur­vey, four in 10 high school stu­dents said they had felt per­sis­tent­ly sad or hopeless.

Still, there’s a lot you can do, and it’s sim­pler than it sounds. That same research found that kids who felt con­nect­ed at home and at school had low­er rates of every men­tal health risk the sur­vey mea­sured. Con­nec­tion isn’t a nice extra. It’s one of the strongest things you can do for your child.

When you talk with them:

• Ask real ques­tions, then let the silence sit long enough for a real answer.
• Skip the judg­ment, even when what they tell you is hard to hear.
• Take the feel­ing seri­ous­ly, even if what caused it seems small to you.
• Watch for changes in sleep, appetite, or a loss of some­thing they used to love.

Some kids do bet­ter with a pro­fes­sion­al involved. If that’s your child, it helps to frame it the way you’d frame a knee brace or glass­es. It’s sup­port, not evi­dence that some­thing’s wrong with them.

Wor­ried about your child’s mood, anx­i­ety, or behav­ior? Duly behav­ioral health providers work with kids and teens, and your pedi­a­tri­cian can help you fig­ure out where to start. >

6. Most teens are run­ning on empty

Sleep qui­et­ly affects every­thing else. Focus, mood, immune sys­tem, how they han­dle a bad grade.

Accord­ing to the CDC, only about 23% of high school­ers get the eight hours they need on a school night, and that num­ber has bare­ly budged in 10 years. Among younger kids, rough­ly a third fall short.

Your child has prob­a­bly drift­ed an hour or two lat­er over the sum­mer. Start pulling bed­time back a week or two before school starts, in 15-minute steps. Expect some negotiating.

When they sleep mat­ters. So does how:

• Same bed­time every night, week­ends included.
• Screens off an hour or two before lights out.
• No food two to three hours before bed.

Screens are get­ting some back­up this year. Gov­er­nor Pritzk­er signed SB 2427 in July 2026, which requires Illi­nois dis­tricts to have bell-to-bell phone poli­cies in place by the 2027 – 2028 school year. Most dis­tricts are stick­ing with their cur­rent rules for now, so read the hand­book instead of assum­ing every­thing changed overnight.

When the school year throws you a curveball

Even with every­thing on the list checked off, kids get sinus infec­tions the week of the sci­ence fair and roll an ankle at Sat­ur­day prac­tice. Duly Imme­di­ate Care Cen­ters are open evenings and week­ends across the sub­urbs for what can’t wait until Mon­day but does­n’t belong in an emer­gency room.

Fre­quent­ly asked questions

What grades require a school phys­i­cal in Illi­nois? Your child needs an exam with­in the year before enter­ing an ear­ly child­hood pro­gram, kinder­garten or first grade (if it’s their first year of school), sixth grade, or ninth grade. Kids in pro­grams with­out grade lev­els need one at ages 5, 11, and 15. Any stu­dent new to Illi­nois schools needs one, no mat­ter the grade.

Does a sports phys­i­cal count as an Illi­nois school phys­i­cal? No. The IHSA or IESA sports form does­n’t meet the school require­ment. Your child needs an exam record­ed on the Illi­nois Cer­tifi­cate of Child Health Exam­i­na­tion form. Many providers can take care of both dur­ing the same vis­it, so ask when you book.

When are Illi­nois school health forms due? Schools have to keep stu­dents out if the health exam or immu­niza­tion records aren’t in by Octo­ber 15, and your dis­trict may set an ear­li­er date. Eye exam reports are also due Octo­ber 15 for kinder­garten­ers and stu­dents new to Illi­nois. Den­tal exam forms are due before May 15.

What changed on the Illi­nois school phys­i­cal form in 2026? Illi­nois now requires age-appro­pri­ate social, emo­tion­al, and devel­op­men­tal screen­ings as part of the exam. Any exam done after Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, for this school year must use the updat­ed Cer­tifi­cate of Child Health Exam­i­na­tion form to record them.

Which grades need a den­tal exam in Illi­nois? Kinder­garten, sec­ond, sixth, and ninth grades. A licensed den­tist must com­plete the form; proof is due before May 15 of that school year, and the exam must have hap­pened with­in the 18 months before that deadline.

How much sleep does my child actu­al­ly need? School-aged kids gen­er­al­ly need nine to 12 hours a night, and teens need eight to 10. Only about 23% of high school­ers cur­rent­ly hit that on a school night.

When should I call the pedi­a­tri­cian instead of wait­ing it out? Trust the pat­tern, not the sin­gle bad day. Reach out if your child has a fever that keeps com­ing back, breath­ing that seems hard­er than usu­al, a mood shift that lasts more than a cou­ple of weeks, or any­thing that’s keep­ing them out of school. Your pedi­a­tri­cian would rather hear about it early.

Care at Duly Health and Care

Whether you need an aller­gy action plan, a way into a con­ver­sa­tion about men­tal health, or a school phys­i­cal on the state’s updat­ed form, your child’s pedi­a­tri­cian is the right first call. 

Find a Duly pedi­a­tri­cian near you. >