From the traffic tie-ups out front to kids in their fancy new threads, it's already back to school Monday for thousands of students in the Fort Worth Independent School District.
Santiago Suarez fought back those first-day jitters and said he knows he really needs to be here.
"I think it's good to go to summer school," he said. "Since like third grade, I didn't really know how to write in English."
It says a lot when the students will tell you they need to be in class during the summer.
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Schools have been working overtime to help, but it's not going to turn around quickly.
"The closest example we have is the Hurricane Katrina event. We know many of those students from New Orleans moved to Texas and it took them three and four years to catch up to where they would have been if they had not lost that year of schooling. The same thing is happening here," said Kent Scribner, superintendent of Fort Worth ISD.
Scribner said more than 14,000 students enrolled in summer learning and he's expecting the number to rise higher.
Carter In The Classroom
Focusing on unique things school districts are doing to help children succeed.
Even their straight-A students are seeing that, while they're scoring well, they still need to catch up.
"Usually during the summer they regress about 23% to what they learned the previous school year," said Ricardo Alvarez Uzcategui, principal at M.H. Moore Elementary School. "So, summer school is a great opportunity for students to continue moving forward."
The schools are mixing in as many fun activities as they can to summer learning. Parents got to check out some of the STEM activities on day one.
The district wants parents to buy in, too, and make sure the kids show up each day.
If you're interested in signing your child up for summer learning in Fort Worth ISD, you can find details here.
