Florida students missed several days of school because of Hurricane Irma.
Pam Stewart, the state’s Education Commissioner has waived two make-up days for Florida schools and now local districts are announcing plans for the remaining missed school days.
In Pinellas County, the school district will need to hold a total of three make-up days during the 2017-2018 school year.
The first will be Monday, Oct. 16. The recommendation regarding the two additional make-up days will be announced by Friday, Sept. 29.
Hillsborough County Public Schools will convert four early release days into regular school days to make up for missed classroom time due to Hurricane Irma.
School will not dismiss an hour early on these Mondays: Oct. 23, Oct. 30, Nov. 6, and Nov. 13. Those will be full-length days.
Polk County Schools are also using already scheduled early release days as a make-up opportunity. Oct. 11, Nov. 15, 2017 and Jan. 24, Feb. 7, March 14, and May 16, 2018 will now be full days.
Pasco County Schools are adding time to class schedules by having shorter time between class periods, reducing the length of home room, or starting or dismissing later in the school day.
In a letter to parents and employees, Sarasota County School Superintendent Todd Bowden says the district will have no hurricane make-up days. He wrote, “We have the extra half-hour of instruction each day because of the additional referendum dollars that have been approved by voters every four years since 2002. Our additional hours of instruction will make up for the extra storm days.”
School district officials in Hernando County have determined they have “sufficient time built-in to their schedules to offset the lost days.”
The School Board of Manatee County decided on Tuesday to add ten minutes to the end of the school day for all students, from Monday, Oct. 2, through Dec. 20th.
Two days for Manatee students that were originally going to be "Professional Learning Early Release Days" will now be full days of school, on Oct. 4 and Dec. 6.
And days that were set aside as Hurricane Make-Up Days, will now be full days for students, they include Nov. 20 and 21st. Then the Thanksgiving break for Manatee County Public School students kicks in.
