On the first day of the new school year Thursday, schools Chancellor David Banks shared in the enthusiasm as students and teachers returned to their classrooms.

"The kids are excited. It's always a little jittery, but the opportunity to learn new things and to reengage with some of their friends, some of the kids are going to new schools, and some kids are going to school for the very first time, our youngest ones. And so I'm sure there's a sense of anxiousness, nervousness, excitement, all of that rolled up into one makes up the excitement of the opening day of school," Banks said in an interview on "Mornings On 1."

The chancellor also addressed the recent uptick in school enrollment, which had been in decline, partly thanks to the large number of migrant students that New York City has welcomed.

"Enrollment numbers, when they go up, means a great deal for school funding," Banks said. "The more students you have, the more funding you get, more programs that we're able to actually put in place. So we're doing everything we can to continue to increase the enrollment. It's in large part because of the 40,000 migrant students that we brought back into our system. We welcome them with open arms. While we know that politically, it's a challenge, for us in schools, when young people show up at our doorstep, our job is to love them and to teach them, and that's what we're doing."

Among the top issues facing schools this year is cellphone policies. While Banks had previously promised to implement a ban on cellphone use by the start of the school year, plans have stalled.

However, Banks said there are more than 350 schools across the city that have already implemented restrictions, with an additional 500 planning to do so this year.

"While we don't have an official systemwide cellphone ban, more than half of the schools are already going to have their own restrictions in place. We're going to study what those schools are doing, because there are a wide range of ways in which they're actually doing it," he said.

Additionally, high school students will be returning to a new math curriculum while all elementary school students will adjust to the "NYC reads" program that began across only some schools last year.

Banks said the new curriculums may seem daunting, but assured it is set up in a way intended to benefit everyone.

"We essentially developed a blueprint that everybody can follow, whether at a school in Staten Island or you're somewhere in Brooklyn, everybody's essentially working from the same page. It allows us to train our teachers the proper way and for everybody to be able to support one another," he said.

Banks said he feels confident that the changes will have a positive impact on students' test scores.

"You are going to see test scores impacted, maybe not in the next year or two, but over the next several years, you will see dramatic change. We believe in the system. It takes a little bit of time to get there with a system this large, but we are absolutely on the right track," he said.