At least 27 school districts in the past 18 months have started restricting backpacks, according to news reports. Though security experts are skeptical the measures make schools safer, they’ve become a common response to school shootings and to fears sparked by students showing up to school with guns.

Looking for an alternative, the school district in Louisville, Ky., turned to a software program—leading to chaos. It’s one of many districts struggling to get students to class.

At least 25 Fort Worth schools reported air conditioning outages on Monday, impacting nearly 100 classrooms on the first day of school.

More frequent testing that provides quicker results to students and teachers is part of a push toward new methods for evaluating progress instead of backloading assessments each spring.