Miami-Dade County Public Schools will start school year online and on August 31

DORAL, FL – School officials announced Thursday afternoon during a school board meeting that Miami-Dade County Public Schools will only offer a distance learning instructional model to start the school year  now scheduled for August 31. 

“In light of the viral surge in our community, we believe it is in the best interests of our students and employees to delay the return to the school house and commence the 2021 school year from a distance,” said M-DCPS Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

In other words, all students belonging to the county’s public schools, regardless of the instructional model their parents chose in a recent survey, will begin the year with My School Online, the new platform the County developed to allow students to learn protected from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Carvalho said an orientation for students and parents will take place the week of August. 24, while the district will decide by September 30 whether conditions allow for the school district to reopen Oct. 5.

If by then the district considers it’s safe to reopen schools, students will do so under mandatory restrictions such as keeping a social distance between each other and wearing face coverings, rules that will apply for those families choosing to send their kids to school.

Carvalho said the district could handle accommodating students in the schoolhouse and those who wish to continue learning online, as reported by Channel 7 News Miami.

“We are hoping that conditions improve considerably in the next several weeks so that we can transition to Stage Two on Oct. 5,” Carvalho said.

He also mentioned the district will continue to monitor COVID conditions and exchanging information with professionals throughout September to decide whether or not it’s convenient to move to state two of the reopening plans.