ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Friday was supposed to be the deadline for parents to choose which learning option their children would enroll in for the upcoming semester but Orange County Public Schools has decided to give parents more time.
The district posted the news on Facebook Friday around 2 p.m.
“Thank you if you are among the 140,000 registrations we have received for the 2020-21 school year. If you have not yet registered your child for one of the three learning models there is still time,” the post read.
Now, parents will have until 5 p.m. Monday to decide whether they’d like to opt for face-to-face learning, Orange County Virtual School or the OCPS LaunchED@Home Model, which is a distance learning model that mirrors the curriculum and seat time of the in-person method.
Orange County Public Schools provided the following numbers showing what parents have chosen thus far:
- 28.8% prefer face-to-face
- 63.4% prefer LaunchED@Home
- 7.1% prefer OCVS (they must apply)
- 0.7% list “other” as their preference
Those who have not registered for an option will be contacted on Tuesday.
Already, the start date of the upcoming semester has been pushed to Aug. 21 to give teachers and students more time to prepare for the new adjustments caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
On top of that, Orange County School Board members have also voted to seek a waiver from the state to allow that the decision about if and when schools reopen be based on the COVID-19 data in Orange County.
Board member Angie Gallo has heard different opinions from parents across the county.
“We have a lot of parents who are saying ‘I’m not sending my kids back’ and then we have parents who absolutely want the face-to-face so we are trying to balance all that out.”
Gallo said feedback is crucial for planning the school year.
“It’s really important and the only way we can figure out the numbers is for parents to tell us what their choices are,” Gallo said.
Gallo reminded parents they are in unprecedented times.
“We recognize this is really nerve wrecking right, we’re all stressed out by it and we’ll get through this, but we got to get through it together.”
To select a learning option, parents should go to OCPS.net.
To read more about Orange County’s back-to-school plan, click here.