Back-to-School 411 - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

It's all part of the hustle and bustle of going back to school.

"Expect lot of traffic because it's going to be more traffic on the road," Montgomery Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Thompson said.

Thompson encourages parents to head out early and to be patient with school staff.

"Well we've made some adjustments in our school times just because of the tight turnaround with our magnet dropout. So when we did that, that meant we had to completely redo our bus schedule which was massive because we transport about 15,000 students," Thompson said.

Parents to verify your child's bus route and times, you can go online to www.mps.k12.al.us to find that along with all the info you need to know before you head out. On that homepage, click "for parents," then scroll down to the link "find school zones bus routes and schedules." On that same page, you will find links to the handbook, breakfast and lunch menus and new prices for the year as well as a link called STI Home where parents can check the child's grades and find other important school information.

"And I believe we've now changed our policy to know where our grading system is, once a child takes a test or anything else, the teacher has 7 days to turn in those grades, so it's a fairly quick turnaround, so parents can find out fairly quickly how their child is doing," Thompson said.

Going back to the district's homepage, click "for students" where you can find the homework help link. This service offers free homework help and free tutoring. Here's some important contact information:

The transportation hotline number is 334-223-6900. It's active until the end of August.

For a quick response, e-mail transportationinfo@mps.k12.al.us.

For students and families who have a financial need, the uniform assistance line is 334-223-6809.

And for general questions and info, e-mail parentinfo@mps.k12.al.us

Superintendent Thompson says there's a big focus this year on customer service as many parents have complained last year about not getting answers and information.

Thompson says central office will randomly check response times, record phone conversations and monitor communication between staff members and parents.

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