Bronx —

Ammiyoka Covington, 23, stands in line with her two boys in the lobby of P.S. 306 in Mount Hope along with several other families. Most of them are waiting to register their children for school, but Covington has brought her older son, Kaeden, for a different reason.

“He has two last names,” Covington says. “I wanted them to use the name that he’s been using for four years, and not the name that they have down.”

Wearing bucket hats to protect their faces from the sun, Kaeden, 4, and his brother, Nyzair, 3, are in their play clothes and are more interested in getting to the small playground behind the school.

“I just don’t want him to get confused,” Covington says.

Covington, Kaeden and Nyzair were just three of the dozens of Bronxites who, in a number of different ways last week, were preparing for an annual rite: The moment when summer ends and every from pre-K registrants to graduate students and crossing guards to principals goes back to school.

READ MORE