Class of COVID-19

The 2021 series, a collaboration of Florida Public Media radio stations, earned a national Edward R. Murrow Award in the digital category for large radio markets.

When lawmakers have slashed Florida's Bright Futures scholarship during past difficult budget cycles, Black and Latino students lost out the most.

Throughout history, each generation has wanted better opportunities for the next. And for many migrant farmworkers, getting a better education for their children is a key value. But economic hardships often force teenage migrants to leave school early and go to work.

Students at historically Black colleges and universities in Florida are finding different ways to cope with illness, grief, family obligations and uncertainty. For the multiethnic Black community, COVID-19 has been an added stressor atop another centuries-long pandemic: racial injustice.

It's long been true that some students who attend Monroe County schools struggle with not having enough food to eat, and COVID-19 has made the situation worse. Educators say the pandemic also has led to new solutions for student hunger.

A nationally representative survey released late last year by Education Next, a peer-reviewed education research journal affiliated with Harvard University, found that white students were much more likely than Black or Latino students to be learning in person.

By the time Lilia Francois gets behind the wheel, a school has tried everything else to locate the child missing from class.

We examine the impact COVID-19 has had on students in Florida during a special report starting Sunday afternoon at 3 on WUSF 89.7, followed by a conversation about the series on Florida Matters, Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.