In Boston,  some parents are calling it a "back to school" debacle. More than 8,000 students were stuck on a waiting list, with no idea whether they’ll go to class just weeks before the first day of school. The backlog has subsided, but WGBH's Tina Martin spoke with parents, who were fired up.

The back to school season has been stressful and frustrating for Theresa Shepard.

“I was disappointed and enraged!” said Shepard. “I’m a mother these are my smallest children.”

Shepard’s five-year-old son was stuck on a waiting list for a kindergarten program for months.

“These are our littlest children. K through 1, K through 2, four years old, five years old, waitlist!!!” said Shepard.

Theresa is one of many parents who told WGBH news that Boston’s school assignment process has been a nightmare. Usually, school assignments are given in  by July 1st but this year more than 8,000 students and parents were still in the dark as of mid-August. As of today, all students from 1st to 12th grade have a school but parents aren’t happy with their assignments or the last-minute process.

Upset mother, Nicole Boulware, asked, “where do I go?”

“I gotta pull Peter to pay Paul and do this and do that because I don’t know which way to go,” said Boulware.

The situation puts brand new school superintendent Dr. Tommy Chang in the hot seat.

“What do you say to those parents who were hoping that with a new superintendent  things would be different with the school system. What do you now say to those folks??” asked Martin.

“I would say to those parents we absolutely will have a seat for you in Boston public schools,” said Chang.

Chang blames that problem on a software glitch but says there’s another problem. Over 1,700 three and four-year-olds are waiting to be assigned to a pre-kindergarten program. Placement is not required by law, but Dr. Chang wants to change that.

“This city, this mayor, this governor needs to work together to figure out how we guarantee an early education seat for every single parent that wants one. That needs to be our guarantee,” said Chang.

Theresa Shepard says this a bad start for Dr. Chang.                           

“We’ll all wake up tomorrow hoping he did what he said he was gonna do but he’s the same as everybody else. Something’s wrong and it needs to be right,” said Shepard.

Even with the rocky start, Boston’s new education chief believes he can get the job done.

“I would say to all the parents in Boston it's going to be a great school year,” said Chang.

Some parents certainly hope it's better than the summer…