Florida To Keep Classrooms Shut Down For Remainder Of School Year

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Saturday that public K-12 schools in the state will remain closed through the end of the school year even as officials begin to shift their focus to a phased reopening of the state.

"It’s obviously not the ideal situation but given where we are in the school year, we felt that was the best decision to go forward," DeSantis told reporters during a late afternoon news conference.

He said children will continue to engage in distance learning though he acknowledged some parents had hoped to see their children return to the classroom.

"Some parents were not interested in their kids going back," he said. "Some others — it’s been tough around the house. They would have liked to have seen them go back."

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Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho predicted earlier in the week that public schools were likely to remain closed for the rest of the school year amid the growing coronavirus crisis in Florida.

"A physical return to schools this year is not only unlikely but imprudent," Carvalho said at the time.

Carvalho noted the school year ends on June 3 for children in his district, which is the fourth largest in the nation and the largest in Florida. The Miami-Dade superintendent said there were little more than a few dozen school days left on the school calendar at the time.

Given differing opinions as to whether school children should return to the classrooms, DeSantis said he risked large number of students being kept home by their parents.

"I think the last thing you want to do is force everyone in school, and then have half the kids not show up," the governor said.

He also said most people did not believe there would be an academic advantage to be gained by reopening schools for such a short time.

"It was an easier decision for me to make knowing that we’ve done so well with the distance learning," he said. "You have huge participation. Florida has worked very hard to be a leader on that."

But the governor noted there has been a social cost of the lockdown on children.

"A lot of our kids haven’t seen friends for a while. This has had a social cost to it," the governor explained. " I want to figure out a way to overcome that. I think in the next phase ... kids will have a little bit more to be able to do."

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