Beach vacations have wrapped up and rows of backpacks are on sale at Target — back-to-school time is officially upon us.

The Catholic Herald's 24-page all-color special section will be delivered to mailboxes starting today, and it's filled with information on the back-to-school routines and plans for local schools, as well as features on high school chaplains, the 90th anniversaries of two Benedictine schools and coverage of how diocesan teachers kicked off their academic year.

In other back-to-school news around the blogosphere, Greg Erlandson at Our Sunday Visitor writes a heart-string-tugging piece on dropping his oldest daughter off at college. And Sherry Antonetti celebrates small back-to-school successes at catholicmom.com. 

Check next week's issue for photos from the first day of school Aug. 27.