Seminole County parents choose back-to-school option Friday; Orange County extends deadline

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(Photo by Arne Dedert/picture alliance via Getty Images)

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Parents in Seminole and Orange Counties had a deadline on Friday to make their decision about which option to choose for their children when school starts next month.

Seminole County's numbers are in, but Orange County decided to give its parents a little longer to decide.

The district is extending the deadline for registration until Monday at 5 p.m.

Visit for more information: reopening.ocps.net

Parents in Seminole County had until noon on Friday to make their decision.

Here are the results for Seminole County:

Total number of registered students: 67,487
Total number completed registration: 48, 951
Percentage filled out form: 72.53%
Percentage that didn’t fill out form: 27.47%

(With rounding the percentage filled out would be 73% and not filled out would be 27%, to get us to 100%)

Option breakdown

No selection made: 18,536 (27.47%)
Seminole Connect: 17,441 (25.84%)
Face-to-Face: 15,797 (23.41%)
Save My Seat! Virtual Classes: 8,687 (12.87%)
Hybrid: 6,417 (9.51%)
Transfer to Seminole County Virtual School: 609 (0.9%)

Parents who did not make a decision will automatically have their children participate in face-to-face learning.

Orange County is giving parents three options for their children:

OCPSLaunchED@Home: Full-time school that is live-streamed. A camera set up in the classroom would follow the teacher so kids at home would feel like they were there.
Orange County Virtual School: This option is also available for parents and guardians who want to keep their kids at home.
Face-to-Face Instruction: Students would attend school in person. Orange County officials said they would require masks when social distancing isn’t possible and move desks further apart. They are also looking into adding partitions at desks.

Seminole County gave its parents four options:

Face-to-Face: Learning in a classroom for 5-days-a-week traditional schooling.
Seminole Connect: At-home learning aligned to the SCPS Instructional Plans/Frameworks and Florida State Standards.
Seminole County Virtual School (SCVS): A fully accredited K-12 public school created and supervised by SCPS and taught by SCPS teachers. Students remain at home and work on their own schedules.
Hybrid: A combination of Face-to-Face, Seminole Connect, and Seminole County Virtual School courses depending on grade-level.

Parents say the decision they make will depend on what’s best for their family.

"What can you handle as a family? What kind of workload are you able to handle? Are you able to give your child support? And if you can’t, do you have resources," parent Heather Mellet said.

In Orange County, if you choose in-person or LaunchED options, you must commit for nine weeks and then can change if you need to.

In Seminole County, if you chose in-person or Seminole Connect, you were required to commit for nine weeks before changing.