def METHOD_NAME(
    cg, node_ids: Sequence[np.uint64], children_cache: Optional[Dict] = None
):
    """
    If a node ID has a single child, it is considered a skip.
    Such IDs won't have meshes because the child mesh will be identical.
    """
    if children_cache is None:
        children_cache = {}
    layers = cg.get_chunk_layers(node_ids)
    skips = []
    result = [empty_1d, node_ids[layers == 2]]
    children_d = cg.get_children(node_ids[layers > 2])
    for p, c in children_d.items():
        if c.size > 1:
            result.append([p])
            children_cache[p] = c
            continue
        assert c.size == 1, f"{p} does not seem to have children."
        skips.append(c[0])
    return np.concatenate(result), np.array(skips, dtype=np.uint64)