Orange County Public Schools will welcome back an estimated 212,000 students for the 2023-24 school year beginning today, August 10th. OCPS Superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez will take the opportunity to welcome students and educators back to school as she visits schools around the county.
Orange County Public Schools is the 8th largest school district in the nation and has 210 schools. Orange County is the 4th largest in Florida, behind Miami-Dade, Broward, and Hillsborough counties.
OCPS students come from 209 countries of origin. Local students speak 168 languages and dialects, and the top five languages after English are: Spanish, Portuguese, Creole, Haitian-Creole (includes French Creole), and Arabic.
For the 2023-24 school year, all OCPS students will be served all meals at no charge. All schools offer breakfast and lunch. Snacks and supper will be available at some schools. Food and Nutrition Services serves at least 35 million meals a year, including about 195,000 meals daily. Nearly 730,000 meals were distributed at 241 sites over the summer months at no charge.
Last school year, more than 203,137 digital devices were distributed to Orlando area students. Every students will have a device for the 2023-24 school year.
There are 24,294 OCPS employees, including 15,201 instructional (12,225 classroom teachers, non-classroom 2,976) employees.
The race/ethnicity breakdown is: 44% Hispanic, 24% White/Caucasian, 24% Black, 5% Asian, and 3% Multiracial.
There are no new schools for 2023-24. However, Water Spring Elementary School, which was based at Horizon High for two years, will be welcoming students to their brand-new campus.
OCPS also operates the largest public transportation system in Central Florida. Approximately 56,000 students are transported to and from school every day using more than 500 buses. The OCPS bus fleet travels close to 13 million miles per year. OCPS Transportation is still hiring bus drivers and mechanics.
