Two weeks after winter break, most school-age kids are back in the classrooms just as the omicron variant surge may be affecting people they know.The surge is reaching students – not just in the number of positive cases reported across school campuses – doctors tell KCRA 3 there can also be a mental health impact on children as they worry about the newest COVID variant and see its effects.“Kids are more aware of the increased cases by having staff members in their school be gone. Their friends… being infected,” said Dr. Carmen Carazo Gonzalez, a pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente.As COVID hits close to home, experts explain, it's important parents acknowledge the worries about the virus their kids may be expressing.“Is it just the anxiety of getting to the school? Is it the fear of being in a classroom and contracting it?” said Carazo Gonzalez. “For some kids, it might be the complete opposite. It's the fear of schools closing and going back to distance learning and not being able to participate in their activities.”The mental health toll brought on by the pandemic, according to pediatricians and clinical psychologists, is hitting adults and children alike.“Sometimes a degree of anxiety is so heightened and so severe in these situations, that it can almost paralyze kids,” said Carazo Gonzalez. “ affect their ability to attend school and succeed in school.”Dr. Angela Drake, a clinical psychologist/faculty member in the department of psychiatry at UC Davis Health said that when kids start imagining the worst might happen, it sometimes takes on a life of its own.In those instances, doctors suggest helping children understand the public health measures they're seeing, which can be comforting when framed the right way.“The idea of: ‘You're helping by doing this test. We know it's not very fun but this is gonna help schools stay open this is gonna help your friends stay well and this is gonna help if we need to get you to the doctor,’” explained Drake.Keeping the messaging "positive" vs. "alarming" is a good approach.“Bringing them down to earth, but supporting them, is the balance that I want to encourage folks to find,” Drake said.Reminding children that we know so much more now about how to protect ourselves from the virus and outlining the ways your family is taking precautions to keep them safe may help, too.“I think professional help is important, but I also want people to know that they have an ability to really intervene in these things,” said Drake. "Especially if they do it early.”Doctors say anxiety is very treatable.They suggest asking your health care provider for help if there are noticeable changes in your child's behavior or mood… if they're irritable, withdrawn or experience sleep disruptions.