CENTRAL FLORIDA — There’s still a lot of uncertainty around how students will be starting school in the fall, but some Central Florida school districts are forming task forces of their own to figure it out amid the coronavirus pandemic.  

School is set to start on August 10, but parents like Osceola County mom Amber Gray do not know what that is going to look like.

“So I have three kids, one in elementary, one in middle school and one in high school,” Gray said.

While she says she is confident her children will be OK to go back to school come August, she understands social distancing inside the walls of a school can be challenging.

“We’re even talking about locker rooms, PE, athletics, there’s so many different variables, and sending our kids back to school and trying to practice social distancing,” Gray said.

That’s one of many topics she’s discussing with the Osceola County Back-to-School Task Force.

She serves on it as a representative for parents.

“It makes me feel that the district cares about our students and the parents’ opinions,” Gray said.

Osceola County Schools Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace says she wants to hear everyone’s voice after seeing the CDC guidelines for sending kids back to school campuses.

Part of which says social distancing should be observed in both classrooms and school buses.

“They are a little concerning, because it could potentially mean I would have to have 600 more buses to bring kids to school every day,”Pace said.

That’s why she says they formed this task force with parents, teachers and infectious disease experts.

Other school districts are also working hard to gauge how they can make parents feel safe bringing their kids back to school.

Orange County Public Schools stated it will be forming work groups to help come up with guidelines, but just made up of school staff. 

“Staff, district leadership, we’ll have teachers, we’ll have some of our classified staff, support staff that’ll be part of that,” said OCPS Communications Director Scott Howat.

Volusia County is also coming up with a committee, even going as far to include students.  

Pace says education leaders are going to need all the help they can get with these new guidelines.

“We do anticipate that school will start on August the 10th, we just don’t know exactly what that will look like today,” Pace said.

Gray says it helps her feel safer having a say in how her kids will continue to learn in this new normal.

“It does yes and then I’m able to take that information to other parents and hoping to ease their minds as well,” Gray said.

Another way districts are learning how parents feel is through surveys. A recent Orange County survey of parents and school employees came back split on what learning should look like in the fall.  

Some wanting to return, some wanting to stay virtual, others wanting a mix. Osceola County Schools released their own survey Thursday.