Alarms have been set, backpacks zipped up and outfits laid out as hundreds of thousands of students on Long Island return to the classroom for the start of a new school year today.

"I want to meet my new teachers [and] my new schedule," Freeport High School 10th grader Maki Duggan said.

More than half of the districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties begin today, another quarter tomorrow and the remainder will welcome kids back by the end of the week. The Jericho, Bethpage and Herricks school districts already held their first day of classes last week.

"I’m really excited," Freeport Interim Superintendent of Schools Alice Kane said. "We’ve been working all summer long to get ready for today. The buildings are beautiful and the teachers are ready."

The biggest changes island-wide are the focus on distraction-free learning and safety in the classroom.

The state's ban on cell phones from bell to bell is now in effect.

Policies about how and where students must keep their phones vary by district, with some, like Freeport, Brentwood, Smithtown and Roosevelt taking the strictest measures by requiring students to put them away in locked pouches for the day. Other districts are making kids put them in cubbies, lockers, or at the front of the classroom.

"I don't mind because I don't use my cell phone that much," Freeport High School 10th grader Benjamin Pizarro said. "People don't like it at all."

The change has been welcomed by teachers who say phones take away from the classroom.

"It's going to be a little different," Kane said. "Everybody has to get used to the idea of giving up their phones. It really is a good idea in the way that it will give us distraction-free."

But the policy has split parents.

"I tell my kid to be more focused on their surroundings and not be glued to the phone," Freeport parent Anthony Wright said.

"I'm not too happy about it because I feel like there's no way for me to communicate," Freeport parent Lissette Rodriguez said.

Find your district's policy here.

A bill Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law last year went into effect yesterday, regulating classroom temperatures.

Schools can't keep kids in classrooms that reach about 88 degrees Fahrenheit and must begin taking steps to lower the temperature once it reaches 82 degrees Fahrenheit inside.

That new law could force midday classroom evacuations if we get a particularly hot day early this fall.