Thousands of kids headed back to the classroom today to take part in the city's Summer Rising Program. Over at P.S. 6 in Brooklyn, both the mayor and schools chancellor celebrated the first day.

Today was the first day of the Summer Rising Program.

"This morning, we've got over 200,000 kids attending Summer Rising, and it's going to be a big part of the comeback of the city, a big part of the comeback of our NYC public schools," Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Sharon Porter is the principal of P.S. 6 and says they have 296 students participating in the Summer Rising Program.

"We have all the staffing we need here to welcome the kids back to Summer Rising, and we're happy they're here this is a great bridge," Porter adds.

The goal is to ease kids back into in-person learning before the start of the school year.

"We'll do a pre-assessment to see where kids are and try to move them up to the next level," Porter explains.

Many of the kids who've been doing remote learning, like second grader Kaitlyn Ned, were excited to see the mayor but also to return to school.

"I'm most excited about seeing my friends and my new teacher," Kaitlyn said.

Kaitlyn's mother Andrea says she has to work and this will be helpful. She also likes the way the day is split between academics in the morning and activities in the afternoon. She couldn't attend today because she wasn't on the list, but they're hoping she'll be able to start attending tomorrow. The mayor stressed that enrollment is still open.

De Blasio and the schools chancellor also addressed concerns about staffing brought up by the principals union.

"We pulled together the staffing we need, it's there. We'll always talk to the unions, and we'll always take the input, but in the end what we know is we got the personnel we need to provide these kids a good experience," de Blasio said. "It's safe, it is free and it's for everyone"

Enrollment is still open, so if you're interested, you can still get your kids signed up for the free Summer Rising Program.