Miami Herald Events
Miami Herald Spelling Bee
Join us this year as we celebrate one of the longest event partnerships in the country, the 86th year of the Miami Herald Spelling Bee!
As the local partner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the Miami Herald Spelling Bee is more than just an annual competition for South Florida’s elementary and middle school students, it is an unforgettable learning experience with lessons and knowledge that will serve competitors for the rest of their lives.
This academic year, the Spelling Bee may be one of the few extracurricular programs available to your students. Whether your students are learning in the classroom or remotely, you can conduct classroom- and school-level competitions. The spelling bee program can be tailored to fit what’s best for your students and faculty, whether that’s hosting classroom- and grade-level competitions that feed into a school spelling bee, or giving students the opportunity to opt into a school-wide competition. No matter how a school chooses to determine its Champion, the School Champion from enrolled schools will move forward to the Miami Herald Spelling Bee's Regional Qualifier.
In order for your students to participate in the 2026 Miami Herald Spelling Bee, your school must enroll with the Scripps National Spelling Bee program at spellingbee.com. Enrollment with the Scripps National Spelling Bee program serves as your school’s enrollment in the Miami Herald Spelling Bee. Schools are required to register the School Champion upon completion of the School Spelling Bee competition before Friday, January 23, 2026. Only one Spelling Champion per school will be allowed to enter the Miami Herald Spelling Bee competition; this includes schools that offer both pre-k to middle school classes and homeschool groups unless they have registered individually as one (1) elementary school and one (1) middle school allowing them to submit one (1) champion per school.
The Miami Herald Spelling Bee is typically composed of a written test (spelling and vocabulary) and a final oral spelldown. The written round will be held via the Online Testing Platform (OTP) between Wednesday, February 11 and Friday, February 13, 2026. The 86th annual Miami Herald Spelling Bee Final In-Person Spelldown will take place on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. The top 25 spellers from each county who pass the first written round in February 2026 will move to the Final Miami Herald Spelling Bee In-Person Spelldown on Wednesday, February 26, 2025 Two champions of the 2025 Miami Herald Spelling Bee, one from Miami-Dade/Monroe Counties and one from Broward County, will represent South Florida in the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. at Bee Week from Sunday, May 24 - Saturday, May 30, 2026.
Enroll your school today at https://spellingbee.com/enrollment
*National enrollment is from August 19, 2025 until January 31, 2026 but the Miami Herald Spelling Bee enrollment deadline is on January 23, 2026. Deadline to enroll each School Champion is January 23, 2026.
