School supplies and sleep schedules are important parts of getting ready for the new semester — and so are vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are in the spotlight, but there are other required vaccines for students.

"Some children who have missed their vaccine and now it's time to catch up so they can be updated for the school, so they don't have to miss the school and come back and get the vaccine," said Dr. Asim Zamir, chief of pediatrics at Valley Baptist in Brownsville.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, some of those must-have vaccines include TDAP, meningococcal, measle mumps and rubella, also known as MMR.

Dr. Zamir says sometimes parents fall behind.

"Those families will travel to Mexico and they live there and sometimes they come here and so they also fall back on the vaccines so we try to catch up on those vaccines on those kids,” Dr. Zamir said.

While the COVID-19 vaccine isn't required, health experts say it is an important discussion for families to have with their doctors.

"It's a blessing that we protect them and the people around in the family,” Dr. Zamir said. “The parents, the grandparents, relatives. And when they go to school other children around them and the teachers and then the staff in the school."