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NYC's 1.1 Million Public School Kids Return To Class

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City's more than one million public school students headed back to class Thursday morning.

All students have a full school day, except those in pre-k and in kindergarten in District 75, who are getting out early.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina are visiting schools in all five boroughs on Thursday.

At the start of the day, the mayor walked a seventh grader named Chyna to school on her first day at IS 392 in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

She told the mayor her goal is to be class valedictorian. De Blasio said his goal is bringing educational equity to the city.

"We don't want some schools just to be OK and others to be stellar," he said. "We need excellence across the board."

This is the first full year under the new Equity and Excellence initiative that aims on having 80 percent of students graduate high school on time by 2026, which two-thirds of students college ready and all students reading by second grade.

A certain percentage of seats have also been reserved for low income students in seven elementary schools. Officials are also trying to expand diversity at specialized high schools like Bronx Science and Stuyvesant.

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