DeSantis Opens Florida's School Year With an Education Address in Lee County as Districts Welcome Students Back

Governor Ron DeSantis opened Florida's 2026-27 academic year on Thursday with an appearance at Tortuga Preserve Elementary School in Lehigh Acres, using the start of classes to highlight what his administration describes as Florida's leadership in education policy. Florida Department of Education Commissioner Henry Mack joined the governor for the event, which came as districts across the state welcomed students back to campus.

In remarks released by his office, the governor said the state has led the way to champion policies that expand opportunities for students, strengthen workforce education, support teachers, and ensure access to a high quality education. The event was the administration's formal marker for the start of a school year that will be the last full year of DeSantis's tenure, since he is term-limited and leaves office in January 2027.

The location carried its own significance. Lee County is one of Florida's fastest-growing school districts, and Lehigh Acres has absorbed a substantial share of that growth as Southwest Florida's population has expanded inland from the coast.

Where Florida schools stand entering the year

Florida operates one of the largest public school systems in the country, serving roughly 2.9 million students across 67 county-based districts. Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, Orange, and Palm Beach counties each run districts large enough to rank among the biggest in the nation on their own.

The state's start dates vary by district, with most Florida districts beginning classes in the first two weeks of August. That calendar puts Florida among the earliest states in the country to begin the academic year, a schedule driven in part by the desire to complete the first semester before winter break and to align with state assessment windows.

Enrollment patterns have shifted meaningfully over the past several years. Florida's expansion of education savings accounts and scholarship programs has moved a growing share of students into private schools and home education, while traditional public school enrollment has flattened or declined in some districts even as the state's overall population has grown. District budgets, which are driven largely by per-student funding, respond directly to those shifts.

The policy agenda behind the year

Several strands of state education policy converge on this school year.

Workforce education has been a consistent emphasis, with the state expanding career and technical education pathways, industry certification programs, and apprenticeship offerings at both the high school and state college levels. The administration has framed these programs as an alternative to a default four-year degree track, and Florida has invested in aligning credential programs with regional employer demand.

Teacher compensation has been a recurring subject in budget negotiations. The state has directed successive appropriations toward raising minimum teacher salaries, though districts have continued to report difficulty filling positions in specific subject areas including mathematics, science, and exceptional student education. Recruitment and retention pressures vary sharply by region, with high cost of living markets in South Florida and the Keys facing the steepest challenges.

Curriculum and instructional materials policy has been among the most contested areas. Statutes enacted in recent years govern how instructional materials are selected and challenged at the district level, and several large districts have processed substantial volumes of formal objections. Those processes continue into the new year.

What changes for students this year

The most visible day-to-day change for many students involves cell phones. Florida law now restricts student cell phone use during the school day, with elementary and middle school students prohibited from using phones for the entire day and high school students permitted use before and after the bell, between classes, and during lunch. Exceptions exist for documented medical and educational needs.

Districts have implemented the requirements in different ways, ranging from simple pocket and backpack rules to lockable pouches that students carry but cannot open during the day. Enforcement approaches and consequences are set at the district level, and several districts updated their student codes of conduct over the summer to reflect the requirements.

The Florida Department of Education is running a study of full-day restrictions in high schools across six districts and is required to submit a report along with a model policy by December 1, 2026. That report will inform whether the full-day standard is extended to high schools statewide.

Southwest Florida and the growth question

Lee County, where Thursday's event was held, illustrates the pressures facing fast-growing Florida districts. Population growth across Lee and Collier counties has driven demand for new school construction, and districts in growth corridors face the recurring challenge of building capacity ahead of the students who will fill it.

Lehigh Acres in particular has grown rapidly as buyers priced out of coastal Lee County have moved inland. The community's growth has outpaced infrastructure in several respects, and school capacity has been among the pressures local officials have worked to manage.

School construction in Florida is funded through a combination of local capital outlay millage, impact fees assessed on new development, and state facilities funding. The balance among those sources has been a persistent point of debate between district officials and county commissions, particularly in counties where growth is concentrated in unincorporated areas.

What parents should know

Families returning to school this month face a familiar set of logistics along with a few specific items worth confirming.

Immunization requirements for Florida schools are set by the Department of Health, and students entering kindergarten and seventh grade face specific requirements that must be documented before attendance. Districts generally provide a grace period but ultimately require compliance.

Transportation continues to be a pressure point in several districts, where school bus driver shortages have produced consolidated routes and longer ride times. Districts typically publish route information in advance and update it during the first weeks as ridership settles.

Heat is a practical concern in August. Florida school districts operate outdoor activities including physical education, athletics, and marching band during a period when heat index values routinely exceed 100 degrees. State athletic association guidelines govern practice modifications and acclimatization periods for fall sports, and districts maintain their own heat protocols.

The political backdrop

Thursday's event occurred against an unusually active political calendar. Florida voters go to the polls on August 18 for primary elections that will narrow the field in an open governor's race, a United States Senate special election, and dozens of legislative contests.

Education policy has featured prominently in those campaigns, with candidates across the spectrum offering competing accounts of the state's direction on school choice, teacher pay, curriculum, and higher education governance. School board races, which in Florida are nonpartisan but have become heavily contested, also appear on August ballots in many counties.

Whoever succeeds DeSantis will inherit a policy framework substantially rebuilt over eight years, along with the budget and implementation questions that come with it.

How Florida funds its schools

Behind every district decision sits the Florida Education Finance Program, the formula that distributes state and local dollars to the state's 67 districts. Understanding it explains a great deal about why districts behave as they do.

The formula is driven by student counts, weighted by program. A student in an exceptional student education program generates more funding than a student in a general education classroom, reflecting the higher cost of service. Career and technical education programs, English language learner services, and other categories carry their own weights.

Funding flows from two sources. The state contributes general revenue, and districts contribute through the required local effort, a property tax millage the Legislature sets annually. Because property values differ enormously across Florida counties, the formula includes equalization mechanisms intended to ensure that a district in a low-value county is not starved relative to one in a high-value county.

Enrollment counts taken during specified survey periods determine the allocations, which is why districts pay close attention to attendance in the first weeks of school. A student who does not appear is a student who does not generate funding.

Teacher recruitment and retention

Staffing has been among the most persistent operational challenges facing Florida districts, and the pressures differ sharply by subject and by geography.

Mathematics, science, and exceptional student education are the categories districts most consistently struggle to fill, a pattern that holds nationally. Candidates with credentials in those areas have options outside teaching, and compensation in education has generally not kept pace with private sector alternatives for people with quantitative skills.

Geography compounds the problem. Districts in high cost of living areas, including Monroe County in the Keys and coastal South Florida, face the arithmetic that a teacher salary does not cover local housing costs. Several Florida districts have explored workforce housing arrangements as a recruitment tool.

The state has directed appropriations toward raising minimum teacher salaries over multiple budget cycles, which lifted the floor substantially. The tradeoff has been compression, with experienced teachers seeing smaller increases than new hires, a dynamic that has generated friction in district bargaining.

School choice and enrollment shifts

Florida operates one of the most expansive school choice systems in the country, and its growth has reshaped enrollment patterns across the state.

Education savings accounts and scholarship programs now allow families to direct public education funding toward private school tuition, home education expenses, and a range of approved educational services. Eligibility has expanded over successive legislative sessions to cover a broad share of Florida families.

The enrollment consequence is that traditional public school districts have seen their share of students decline even in counties where the school-age population has grown. Because funding follows students, that shift produces budget pressure that does not scale down neatly. A district that loses students spread across many schools still has to operate every one of those buildings.

Charter schools add another dimension, operating as public schools under contracts with districts or with alternative authorizers while functioning independently on staffing and curriculum. Florida has one of the largest charter sectors in the country.

What's next

Districts across Florida will complete their staggered start dates through the middle of August, with the last of the state's districts opening in the coming week. Enrollment counts taken in the fall will determine funding allocations under the state's education finance formula.

The Department of Education's report on full-day high school phone restrictions is due December 1, and its recommendations will shape the next round of legislative discussion when lawmakers convene for the 2027 session.

For families, the immediate horizon is more prosaic: bus routes settling into rhythm, the first progress reports, and the fall athletics season getting underway. The 2026-27 school year in Florida is officially underway.