When it looks like the U.S. has the answers to the pandemic, COVID-19 keeps changing the questions. Parents and teachers must now contend with the Delta variant as millions of students starting or preparing to go back to school.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told Yahoo Finance that he is paying attention not just as a federal official but also as a father.

“I want to make sure that when my children return to school, I’m sending them to an environment that’s taking all the precautions necessary to keep our children safe and to keep our educators safe as well,” he told Yahoo Finance Live.

According to the CDC, nearly 1,600 kids were hospitalized last week with COVID-19. The rise in COVID-19 infections comes at an inopportune time for parents, teachers, and students who imagined that this upcoming school year would not resemble the last.

Despite the alarming numbers, Cardona is confident that schools can be — and stay — open and stay as long as schools and districts follow safety measures, including masking and vaccination.

“We know that masking works. We know that when [kids are] eligible, vaccination is the best tool we have across the country. We’re fortunate now to be able to have vaccines for students 12 and older and educators. So we know we can do it if we follow the mitigation strategies and we get vaccinated when we’re able to,” he added.

“I recall last year doing this without vaccines, without the testing availability that we have today, without the American Rescue Plan funds, to make sure we had what we needed to open school safely. So I believe we can do it if we follow the mitigation strategies and get vaccinated when we can,” Cardona said.

'The more vaccinated, the better' to go back to school

Recently, California and New York City have required all school teachers and staff to be fully vaccinated or be tested regularly. When asked if he favored such policies, Cardona said that health experts should lead conversations around vaccine mandates. Still, he is encouraged by vaccination rates among teachers.

“The more vaccinated, the better," he said. "We have [almost] 90% of the teachers across the country that are vaccinated. Our students have suffered enough. They’ve been disrupted enough, getting vaccinated is the best tool. So when our health experts feel that it’s time to move forward in that direction, if that’s where they want to go, then I support it."

Mask mandates have been another contentious issue across the country. Broward County, Florida’s school board recently upheld its decision to implement a mask mandate in schools and district facilities in defiance of Governor DeSantis’ threat to withhold teachers’ salaries and funding from districts requiring masks in schools.