New school year, new student OMNY cards, but no changes to the paper design. 

Instead, it was accompanied by a protective plastic sleeve. The city’s Department of Education gives them to students who live more than half a mile from school, with four rides a day.

A day before the start of school, students with the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee held a funeral for last year’s cards, widely regarded as flimsy. The cards deactivated on Aug. 31.

The sleeve is supposed to help make cards last after students complained they would stop working if they got wet or bent, and some schools ran out of replacements.

“I think it’s cute. I like it, but it doesn’t fit my wallet, and it’s again, not very durable,” Charlie Hawn, a high school senior, said.

“The sleeve is a little more annoying in my opinion, because now it’s bigger than a regular card. Yeah, so it doesn’t fit in a wallet,” James Franco, a high school senior, said.

Other students opted for their own more durable ID card holders.

“I think if they just replaced it with a normal OMNY card material or MetroCard material it would be much, much better for us,” Hawn said.

According to the MTA, the agency is now testing a digital OMNY card to allow students to use their phones instead.

Meanwhile, students said they want to see more than physical changes to the card — such as giving one to every student.

“Many students have jobs now, or like, internships, and they just can’t get to them or they have to pay out of pocket, which really adds up quickly, especially on a student budget,” Juniper Wang, a high school senior, said.

Students argued it will promote the habit of paying versus jumping the turnstile.

Another issue is that it does not cover express buses or commuter rail. Franco’s parents pay for a school bus for his commute from Queens to Bronx Science.

“If I took the subway, it would take me, like, two and a half hours. I do live next to an express bus, which would cut the time, like, double it — it’ll only take like one hour. But the student cards don’t work on express buses, so I can’t use that,” he said.

The city did not respond to our questions about those issues. Students say the school year may be new, but student OMNY’s problems are getting old.