Orange County Public Schools' education plan earns state approval

The Florida Department of Education has approved Orange County Public Schools' innovative plan, called LaunchEd@Home.

LaunchED@Home gives students the opportunity to continue to learn at home while remaining registered at their enrolled school. The option provides families with the opportunity to rejoin their enrolled school in the future until they feel safe returning their students to face-to-face instruction.

OCPS also filed a waiver that would allow it to make a decision on safe school reopening and face-to-face instruction dependent on local COVID-19 conditions and guidance from medical experts. The state has not yet responded to the waiver. Should the waiver be approved, the board then could retract reopening brick-and-mortar schools if deemed unsafe locally. 

OCPS also has asked parents to select their instructional model of choice for the first semester of the upcoming school year. In addition to LaunchEd@Home, the choices include a face-to-face model and virtual school.

As of Tuesday, July 21, nearly 69,000 families had responded to the Choice Registration with the following preferences: 63.5% preferred LaunchED@Home, 30.1% preferred Face-to-Face, 5.8% preferred Orange County Virtual School, and 0.7% listed other as their preference.

The district also released results of its Assignment Preferences Survey. More than 10,000 teachers responded with their preferences. According to this survey, 46.4% LaunchED@Home if they teach from home, 27.6% preferred traditional Face-to-Face, 17.8% preferred LaunchED@Home if they teach from a classroom, 3.1% preferred OCVS, and 5.1% said any option is fine.

For more information about the options, click here.