South Florida school districts follow state recommendation to stay online until May

South Florida school districts, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, will remain shuttered and keep instruction online through at least May 1 as coronavirus pandemic outlooks dim.

Originally set to reopen campuses after April 15, school closures statewide were extended after a Monday call Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran had with superintendents. The state cannot mandate locally controlled school districts to shut down.

Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced late Monday on Twitter that a “more realistic scenario would be that schools won’t reopen until sometime in May.”

Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie announced the extended closures during a School Board meeting Tuesday. He also hinted that schools may be out for the rest of the school year.

“Our plan is to prepare for continuing the current education model and the distance learning that we have throughout the remainder of the school year,” he said. “We would love to see circumstances improve, but I think we have to hope for the best and plan for the worst scenario.”

A public recommendation from the Florida Department of Education came Tuesday afternoon. According to the announcement, the decision to recommend that all public and private schools stay closed through May followed President Donald Trump and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) extension of social-distancing guidelines until April 30th.

On March 13, the school districts of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach decided to close schools without guidance from Tallahassee. Four days later, the Florida Department of Education officially announced that all schools should be closed through April 15.

School districts across Florida officially began online distance learning on Monday. Students and teachers had their share of technical difficulties as online learning platforms became overburdened.

On Tuesday, Florida health officials confirmed 403 additional cases of COVID-19, a total of 6,741 confirmed cases. More deaths were announced in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough and Polk counties, raising the death toll to 85.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 8:14 PM.