While thousands of students in Windsor-Essex head back to school today, the heads of the two biggest school boards in the region have advice for parents dropping off their kids for the first time.
At the Greater Essex County District School Board, Director of Education Vicki Houston says parents should remember that the anxiety and trepidation they feel is also being felt by their child.
At the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board, Emelda Byrne recommends rest and routine.
The Catholic board told WindsorNewsToday.ca its enrolment is up this year, part of a trend across the province at Catholic schools.
"In elementary, we have 15,000 elementary students, and 8,500 approximately in secondary, plus 1,000 adults, so we're around 24,500. We haven't seen these numbers in a number of years," said Byrne.
As a result, the student population at Assumption College Catholic High School has risen from 600 a few years ago to 1,070. Six portables have been added at Assumption, while another was added at St. John Vianney Catholic School for a total of ten portables.
Byrne said much of the increase is in grade 9 students.
The public school board hasn't released its current enrolment numbers, but projected a decline back in the spring.
"We've been fast and furious with registrations in the last couple of weeks. We're finding more and more that parents are registering their children later in the summer," said Houston.
Houston is looking forward to new mental health initiatives at her board and the continuation of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The Greater Essex County District School Board was one of the first in Canada to adopt the award, which requires students to complete projects in the community for points.
Byrne anticipates the rollout of education on artificial intelligence for both students and their teachers. The full rollout will take a few years, but students in grades 5 to 12 will be given new Chromebooks as part of their instruction.
"We're going to start with scaffolding over the next couple of years, a board committee, A.I. guidelines, A.I. guiding principles to make sure we get this right because you know A.I. is evolving day after day," she said.
With files from Mark Brown.