Resources available before kids head back to school

Teachers are already back to work in Albuquerque Public Schools, and class starts for most students on Monday.

Ahead of the first bell, there are resources for parents who are no doubt balancing the many plates of heading back to school — things such as bus routes, lunches and making sure kids are in class.

MyBusStop.aps.edu shows where a bus stop is based on an address, the bus number, and the pickup and drop-off times. It will also show the route.

Also ahead of the new school year, parents can apply for free and reducedprice lunches online — one application per family. The APS website has all the details, or paper forms are available at schools. People are encouraged to have them filled out by Sept. 6.

And beginning on that first day of school, APS will start attendance and truancy text messages.

This has been available for high schoolers in the past, but now people with elementary and middle school students will also be able to get texts in the morning and evening about unexcused absences.

Texts also will be sent when a student

has missed two, five and 10 days of school.

SCHOLARSHIP NOD:

Comcast NBCUniversal, through its annual Leaders and Achievers Scholarship Program, gave out $30,000 in scholarships to 12 New Mexico students for the coming school year. The students will get $2,500 each. Three of them were in Albuquerque.

Alexandra Ulibarri — Hope Christian School.

Jennifer Dominguez — Atrisco Heritage Academy High School.

Nicolas Estrada — Volcano Vista High School.

Community service, academics and leadership were factors in their selection.

SUPPLIES FOR NATIVE STUDENTS:

Partnership With Native Americans, a nonprofit, will host a backpack drive to get school supplies to Native American communities.

In New Mexico, the drive is expected to help 2,800 students, including those who are a part of the Navajo Nation, and the Taos, Laguna and San Ildefonso pueblos.

Through the end of the summer, the nonprofit is taking monetary donations at its website, PWNA4hope.org, to pay for transportation costs.