Back-to-School Tips for Families After a Recent Separation or Divorce Returning to school after summer vacation can be difficult at the best of times, but it poses additional challenges for children if a separation or divorce occurred over the holidays. Here's advice to help your children answer questions from schoolmates- and how to know when to seek professional help for your child. By Diana Shepherd August25,2015 Going back to school is always a stressful time for children and parents; some greet it with joyful excitement, while others are anxious and depressed when the summer holidays are over. This is true for all families -but when there has been a separation or divorce over the summer, children can be especially anxious about returning to school. What are they going to tell their friends? Their teachers? If children believe the divorce was their fault -and most children do, until repeated reassurance convinces them they're blameless -they may be experiencing feelings of