School is back in session for Rockdale County Public Schools and thousands of students got up in the early morning hours, put on their first-day-of-school clothes, donned their backpacks and poured into schools with parents on the first day of the 2013-2014 year.

This was the first day for many specialty school choice programs, such as Memorial Middle School's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Academy with more than 200 students, CJ Hicks Elementary International Baccalaureate program which started with 24 students from grades K-3, Honey Creek Elementary's STEM program for grades 4-5 with 22 participants and Sims Elementary's AVID program for grades 4-5.

Superintendent Richard Autry said, “At this time, we are experiencing another great first day of school. We are also pleased with the initial implementation of our school choice specialty programs that began today. We are enthusiastic to have our students and parents back from the summer break and certainly welcome our new families to Rockdale County Public Schools. I appreciate all of our teachers, administrators and support staff who have worked tirelessly during preplanning to make this day run smoothly and to begin the year focused on teaching and learning.” 

Here are a few scenes from the first day of school for RCPS from around the county.