Palm Beach County public schools are opening for students, and private schools are getting back into the groove  over the next couple of weeks.

What’s new:

You can now follow the Palm Beach County School District on Facebook and Twitter @PBCSD.

A new charter school is opening in Boca Raton. Read about it in the blog.

Schools are moving toward national “common core” standards. There’s a guide for parents at the school district website.

Helpful links, etc.:

Where to find your bus stop.

School bus dispatch number for Boca Raton: 561-368-1522

School breakfast & lunch menus.

Make sure your child’s backpack isn’t too heavy and is packed properly. Get some guidelines from a pediatrician in the blog.

Find tips for giving preschoolers the social-emotional skills they need in 3-Minute Guru.

School calendar.

Coming up:

The Palm Beach County School Board is holding its Aug. 22 meeting at Lynn University, the site of the last presidential debate this fall. They’ll be talking about education’s role in the political system.

Enjoy the day! And tell us how it went in the comments – tears, cheers and all.

Kids already consider homework a pain in the neck, but in reality, it’s the overloaded backpack we should be worried about.

Dr. Sara Levine, a Boca Raton doctor of internal medicine and pediatrics, said she sees it all the time – kids with back, neck and shoulder pain.

“Sometimes it’s from backpacks, without question,” she said.

The load can affect kids’ posture, which can lead to worse problems in adulthood. The pain can hurt their sports performance. They may be too sore to exercise, which can lead to weight gain.

What can parents do about it?

• Make sure your child’s backpack weighs no more than 10 to 15 percent of his total body weight.
• If they must carry a heavier load, use a wheeled bag that can be pulled along the ground.
• Tell the kids to use both shoulder straps; don’t put all the weight on one shoulder. (Only use the messenger bag style if you have a very light load; even one textbook is too heavy).
• Put heavy items at the bottom for stability.
• The backpack should fit snugly above the waist, below the neck, in the midsection of the back.
• Look for a bag with padded shoulder straps and padding on the back.
• Encourage the kids to clean them out every week.

With more and more textbooks online, many kids are being asked to carry around fewer books, which can help. But it is tempting to fill the bag to capacity.

You take a small child, give her a teen-size backpack to accommodate the binders she needs, then continue to load it up, and pretty soon you have a 50-pound kid about to tip over, said Levine, herself a mom of three kids ages 8 to 15.

Orthopedic surgeons have done studies on the issue, often finding signs of strain on children’s backs.

Levine, who has a private practice affiliated with West Boca Medical Center and Boca Raton Regional Hosptial, said that even if a child’s X-ray or MRI looks normal, the pain is real.

TO LEARN MORE

More information and tips on backpack safety at HealthyChildren.org.

More Kids’ Health stories at BocaParent:

• Help for sleep problems at West Boca Medical Center
• Help for babies with sight and hearing loss
• Holistic help for autism, ADHD
• Resources for childhood/teen depression
• Where to get your car seat checked

- CHARLENE PACENTI

OK, people. Time to come out of the pool and start thinking about back to school. At least for a moment.

Check around the house for last year's leftover supplies before you buy more.

Or maybe wait till Aug. 13-15 for the sales tax holiday – which isn’t much savings in itself, but the stores will use it to put everything on sale. Still, that’s cutting it a little close for us Palm Beach County public school parents who have to have the kids ready and outfitted on Aug. 17.

We decided to try to knock a couple of items off our list this weekend – and truly, were not impressed by the offerings so far.

We did find $5 polo shirts at the Old Navy at Town Center Mall – but in limited colors (mostly white and light blue). They did seem to be good quality. They also had $5 stainless steel water bottles.

Cheap backpacks and lunchboxes were piled high, but so flimsy you’d better buy three of each – or keep shopping for a better one.

We love getting Land’s End gear at Sears and were really hoping to score a backpack for our fifth-grader. But the selection was really small, and nothing with wheels. Ditto at Office Depot in Deerfield Beach, where we had scored a good one last year.

Next stop: Target.

Is anyone else finding great deals? Tell us in the comments! We need your advice.

And as you shop, remember to pick up some extra items for the kids who don’t have anyone shopping for them. There will be many drives to collect school supplies in the next month or so, many opportunities to give.

Here’s one that’s coming up next weekend:

Tomasso’s Pizza and Subs, 1229 W. Palmetto Park Rd., is having “Make your own pizza day!” on Aug. 7.

Come in between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. with a $10 worth of new school supplies to donate, and you can make your own large two-topping pizza. Their pizza professionals will help participants of all ages.

During the entire month of August, Tomasso’s will give you a large, two-topping pizza in return for $10 worth of new school supplies.

All the donations will be given to the Spirit of Giving Network, which will distribute them to the K-12 children served by its member organizations, which include Kids in Distress, the YMCA and others.

If you know of others, post them in the comments.