You may recall yesterday's horrible story about a 5-year-old boy who claims four of his older classmates sodomized him in a school bathroom in June. Or you may have succesfully blocked it out as a method of Back to School self-preservation. If so, you're not alone: The Department of Education also seems eager to make the incident go away. A DOE spokesperson tells the Daily News that after an investigation, "the allegations could not be substantiated." But that's not what an NYPD detective told the boy's mother. more ›

Even though half of the kids probably won't even be showing up today, it is technically the first day of school! But this year is getting off to a rocky start, with accusations that the Mayor isn't doing his job, and one borough threatening to secede over cuts to school bus services. Besides, we totally don't know what to wear. more ›

This week the city's public school students will come back for just one day of school, and parents say the awkward schedule is throwing a wrench in their vacation plans. Students are expected to show up for school on Wednesday, September 8th after celebrating Labor Day, but have Thursday and Friday off for Rosh Hashanah. To protest, they've turned to Facebook. more ›

With city school children returning to classes this past week, reports are that special ed bus drivers have come back from summer in full back to school spirit and are making an effort to spend more time with students—causing them to arrive up to 90 minutes after the school day has begun. The Post talks to principals who call bus drivers their "worst nightmare" and report that just yesterday 70 bus routes arrived late to school. When one Queens father called to complain, he says the school's transportation office told him it would take two weeks to resolve tardiness issues—which is actually one week shorter than it took to fix the same problem for his two sons two years ago. The dad says, "People can't be coming late to work for two weeks. Nobody's being held accountable for what's going on." A DOE spokeswoman said that an abundance of transfer students forces "rejiggering of yellow-bus routes." A recent Department of Education survey showed one in four principals were dissatisfied with their bus service. more ›

Today, the 1.1 million students in NYC's public school system return to class, making it the unofficial "Parents Liberation Day." Indeed, parents told NY1, "I'm excited because my son, you know, the summer was basically recreation all day long and it's just time for him to get back into that groove of his education," and "I'm happy. So happy to get them out of the house." Of course, one looming issue—besides tests, tests and more tests that may not even help the kids prepare for college—is swine flu, though the city says its ready to combat that. Gotham Schools is liveblogging Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's five-borough school tour: At PS 111 in Long Island City—where Mayor Bloomberg, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, and principals union president Ernest Logan are also on hand—students "seem 'stunned and clearly irritated' by the gaggle of 20-odd reporters and photographers outside the door." more ›

This fall, teachers will no longer have to arrive two days before students and prepare their classrooms, because the deal the United Federation of Teachers struck with the Bloomberg administration allows them to return on the same day as students, as part of a deal to save $2 billion in pensions. Of course, the principals are upset: PS 321 (Brooklyn) Principal Elizabeth Phillips asked, "Do parents want their children coming into rooms where furniture is stacked up and materials packed away?"while PS 221 (Queens) Principal Sheila Twomey said, "You don’t want to picture what it was like if a child comes to school and there’s nothing up around the room, you’re trying to find your pencil and everybody else around you is disorganized." And principals union president Earl Logan said the before-school's start meetings were helpful to integrate new teachers. UFT outgoing president Randi Weingarten pointed out that requiring teachers to arrive on the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day (school starts on the Tuesday after Labor Day) violated a 2005 labor agreement and said that the new deal could allow Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to simply move the students' start date to be two days later. more ›