ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — More than 200,000 Orange County Public Schools students and staff will have their first day of school Monday.
What You Need To Know
- Many parents say their kids still don't have class assignments, schedules
- Some kids still don't have the necessary tech for 1st day back
- Get more back-to-school coverage in Central Florida
This year, they’ll be starting classes online, using the LaunchEd at home model until August 21. So far, a lot of parents are concerned because with just a few days until their kids head back, many aren't sure about what the new year will look like.
While everyone will start virtually on August 10, many parents say their kids don’t have class assignments or schedules. Some are still without needed technology ahead of the first day back.
Judi Hayes has a third and a seventh grader headed back Monday. Her oldest child Jack is in middle school, so they can be flexible there.
"We don't know what our schedule looks like. We don't know who the teachers are. For Jack, there's not a lot of guess-work, we kind of know what classes he's going to have," Hayes said.
But her youngest, Will, is going into the third grade this year has special needs — it’s important to know his teacher, his paraprofessional and his schedule.
"We really don't know and I still don't know whether they're going to come on campus for his speech therapy. So we are kind of up-in-the-air, not really knowing what that's going to look like," Hayes said.
She's not the only parent worrying about this.
"There is still a lot of uncertainty," Hayes said. "And I've tried to try and reach out and help people who are freaking out and don't know what to expect. And our school has been pretty good about it, but I do wish we would get a little more information. I understand all the constraints and they don’t want to get people’s hopes up for one thing, that’s fine. I just feel like we’re being kept in the dark and probably a lot of it isn’t necessary."
When it comes to technology for the upcoming year, OCPS said all middle and high schoolers at brick and mortar schools already have district-issued laptops. Any student doing virtual school or LaunchEd at home will be issued a device to use before the first day back on Monday.
As for the schedules, the district said schedules for students will go live this Friday. For teachers and staff, OCPS said they’ll also find out on Friday if they’ll be going back in-person, virtual through LaunchEd or a combination of both this Friday.
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