After Hurricanes Helene and Milton battered the Tampa Bay area and forced schools to close, local districts are now devising plans to make up for lost classroom time.
Kindergarten through third grade students are required by the Florida Department of Education to be in school for 720 hours each year and fourth through high school students need 900 annual instructional hours.
With varying amounts of lost days across the west coast of Florida, each district will need to make adjustments to the calendars to ensure students are in class for that required time.
Those adjustments will allow most districts to preserve originally scheduled seasonal breaks.
Pinellas County
Pinellas students missed nearly 50 hours of school due to the storms.
Superintendent Kevin Hendrick announced a tentative plan this week, which will be voted on Oct. 29, to waive first semester final exams and require students to attend classes on Jan. 6, 2025 and Feb. 17, 2025, which were originally non-student days.
The last day of school, May 29, 2025 will also be a full day instead of a half day.
High school graduations will now be held at the end of May, rather than the middle of the month.
Hillsborough County
The school district had already canceled early release days for the first semester after Hurricane Helene, but after Milton, second-semester early release days were canceled as well.
Hillsborough County Public Schools’ first semester will now end Jan. 6, 2025 and all first semester exams will be waived for middle and high schoolers.
Students on the east side of the county will have to go to school on Feb. 14, 2025, which was a non-student day for the Florida State Fair in Tampa. West side schools will still have off.
However, west side schools will have class on March 3, 2025, originally a non-student day for the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, and east side school students will have the day off.
Two minutes will also be added to each class period in the second semester for middle and high schoolers, delaying start or end times for the school day. The new start or end time will be communicated in December.
Sarasota County
Sarasota County Schools’ first semester will conclude Jan. 16, 2025, almost a full month later than originally scheduled.
All instructional days will now be full days, including during exam weeks.
Instead of having a non-student day on Jan. 6, 2025 for staff planning, students will now have class that day and be off Jan. 17, 2025. Students will also have to go to school Mar. 14, 2025 and May 29, 2025, days they originally had off.
Citrus County
Citrus County students will now have to go to school on Oct. 21, Nov. 11 and Dec. 20. While students will no longer have Veteran’s Day off, county officials said they deeply value their veterans.
“We plan to honor them in meaningful ways in our schools,” they said in a statement.
Hernando County
Hernando County Schools will make up time lost due to the hurricanes on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19, holding full school days rather than early release days.
Manatee County
Manatee County Schools lost about eight instructional days due to the storms and the calendar did not originally designate hurricane makeup days. A final decision on when the class time will be made up has not been determined yet.
Pasco County
Pasco County Schools has not announced its plan to make up instructional time lost due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
