The start of any school year brings changes that for students can feel monumental: new teachers, subjects and extracurricular activities, to name a few.

New York City is facing some bigger changes, and challenges, as it prepares to open schools on Thursday to its 1.1 million students. Here are three things parents and students should know about.

Gifted programs

Segregation has been a longtime problem in the city’s schools. Now a panel appointed by Mayor de Blasio wants the city to eliminate many of the gifted programs and selective admissions processes that have led to mostly white and Asian schools in the largely black and Hispanic school system.

“It’s all eyes on the gifted proposal,” said Eliza Shapiro, who covers education for The Times.

The mayor, who has the power to adopt some or all of the panel’s suggestions without input from state or city lawmakers, said he was considering them.