Orange County schools experience hiccups as schools move to distance learning

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins told FOX 35 News that the first day of distance learning felt like the first day of a school year.  

“This morning at 8:45, we had 50,000 logins,” Dr. Barbara Jenkins said.  

While some students and teachers were able to log on and start their curriculum, first thing this Monday morning, others were unable to log onto the system.  

“We need just a little bit of patience around log-ins and any kind of tech glitches. Principals get information, teachers relay to principals those concerns and our tech staff is on it,” Dr. Jenkins said. 

She says middle and high school students, as well as college students, across the country are using some of the same platforms overloading the systems.  

Dr. Jenkins says that the kinks are being worked on.

She says OCPS’s IT folks are doing what they can on their end.  

Their basic advice is if your student is having issues logging onto the system... “When in doubt, turn the computer off and turn it back on. It reboots the system. Several times that will be the solution,” Dr. Jenkins said.

She also says that logging on will get better and easier by each day.

If issues continue and the problem happens to be on your student’s computer, Dr. Jenkins says they have staff that can help with that.  

“We have the ability to grab that desktop remotely through our tech specialists who are working from home who will also go back to schools to pick up laptops that need to be prepared,” Dr. Jenkins said.

Aside from distance learning, the other topic families keep asking her about is high school graduation.  

Dr. Jenkins says right now it’s too early to make the call on whether they’ll be able to carry out traditional high school graduation ceremonies.