Orange County

Central Florida districts prepare for summer school surge

ORLANDO, Fla. — The school year has come to an end at almost all of Central Florida’s school districts.

But in just a few days, more students than ever are heading back for summer school to get help after enduring the struggles of at-home learning.

Students struggled to keep up this year after many ran into difficulties while learning remotely.

Watch: Local swim instructors “completely overwhelmed” with new requests for lessons

To make up for the learning loss, thousands of them have signed up for summer school.

Orange County Public Schools more than tripled their summer school enrollment.

Administrators said the spike in summer school needs is because of a so-called “COVID slide.”

When considering a handful of students not learning in-person and the struggles some had with learning online this year educators could tell early on a few students would have to spend their summer playing catch up.

Read: Coronavirus: Half of U.S. adults fully vaccinated, CDC data shows

What a school year it was. From online learning to parents having to because teachers to provide in-person instruction.

Regardless of the efforts, educators across Central Florida saw some students falling behind.

Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins said it was clear back in January that there would be a significant need for summer school programs.

Read: Coronavirus: New COVID-19 cases fall to lowest levels since last June

Orange County Public Schools has seen a significant surge in students. In all, 37,000 are set to attend summer school this year in comparison to roughly 10,000 for previous years.

It is a summer enrichment and acceleration program, so not all the OCPS students attending have been required to because of poor grades this year. Some chose to go merely to get back on track.

All our other Central Florida school districts confirmed they are also preparing for an increase in students this year for summer school.

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