Leon County Schools

Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration has asked an appeals court to block challenges filed by five school boards against a Department of Health rule aimed at preventing students from being forced to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Leon County school board is upholding a decision by superintendent Rocky Hanna to reinstitute a mandatory school mask policy. The policy survived an attempt by board members DeeDee Rasmussen and Alva Striplin to overturn it.

Leon County Schools is now posting the number of people opting out of the district’s mask policy. The data has been added to the district's COVID-19 dashboard which also shows the number of quarantined staff and students at each school.

The first day of school is coming in the middle of a difficult week for Leon County School Superintendent Rocky Hanna. He sat down with WFSU to talk about masks, a new school year and what parents should expect for the next few months.

Leon County Schools will begin vaccinating employees 50 years and older this Saturday. This comes after Governor Ron DeSantis signed an order Tuesday allowing K-12 employees, law enforcement officers, and firefighters 50 years and older to be vaccinated.

Leon County School employees 65 and older will have an opportunity to get vaccinated Saturday.

Leon County Schools officially welcomed back about 15,000 students for in-person learning this morning.

Leon County students will now go back to school on August 31st. The school board voted to push the date back a week following the deaths of two Fort Braden School employees from COVID-19.

If the Re-Open Leon Schools Task Force determines in-person classes are no longer safe, Superintendent Rocky Hanna says he will shutter schools even if that means losing funding.

The school year for Leon county is slated to start August 19, but the date is looking incredibly shaky amid fears from teachers worried about their health and safety. The Leon County Classroom Teachers Associated received 554 responses to a poll asking teachers their thoughts about a Fall return. Most of the teachers said they didn’t feel safe about reopening schools.