TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Miami-Dade County school district, the largest in the state, will start the upcoming school year with online classes on Aug. 31, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced Wednesday.
Carvalho said the district will evaluate later whether conditions will allow schools to resume in-person instruction on Oct. 5.
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The decision came as Miami-Dade County continues to see massive increases in COVID-19 cases, including 20,758 new cases in the past seven days.
Carvalho cited the surge in cases as the reason the 2020-2021 school year will start with distance learning.
A few hours before the county’s announcement Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran reiterated their view that all districts in the state should reopen classrooms to give parents the choice about the form of instruction they deem best.
“I am confident that there is going to be in-person (instruction) throughout the state,” the governor told reporters. “Look, the flexibility, the timing and all that, we are going to leave that to the school districts, I would much rather they take a little bit of extra time and get it right, but I don’t there is going to be a school district in the state that is going virtual the whole semester.”