Florida students will not return to classes until after April 15, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday afternoon.
Additionally, all remaining testing will be cancelled for the remainder of the school year and there will be no school grades released for the 2019-2020 school year.
“Requirements for graduation and promotion and final course grades will be evaluated as if those assessments did not exist,” DeSantis said.
Early Tuesday night, parents across the state began receiving e-mails and texts from school superintendents to notify them about the extended closures and the cancelled state testing.
In a press release, Department of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said they are using executive authority to support the Florida Division of Emergency Management to ensure Florida citizens are kept safe.
“The containment of COVID-19 is essential, and this is not a decision we made lightly. Districts have taken action and have instituted distance learning as a necessary precaution to protect students, educators, families, and Florida’s overall public health,” Corcoran said.
While all public and private K-12 and career and technical center campuses are closed through April 15, the FDOE wrote that, "schools are encouraged to operate virtually or through other non-classroom-based means to the greatest extent possible to implement distance learning. School districts should be prepared to extend their educational calendars through June 30, 2020, to the extent feasible and necessary.”
