Pasco county school is excited to have you and your children for a brand new school year!

Let's make it a year of learning and growing together!

Thanks to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) during the 2023-2024 school year providing meals, regardless of eligibility category, at NO CHARGE for all students at all schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program. CEP serves breakfast and lunch to all children at no charge and eliminates the collection of meal applications for free, reduced-price, and paid student meals. CEP is made possible through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Special Assistance Certification and Reimbursement Community Eligibility Provision.

The school board has approved a new cell phone policy, after listening to thousands of input from parents, students, teachers, and administrators.

Everyone needs to be aware of the changes.

There are three major concerns:

1. Safety: Parents made it clear they want students to have their phones at school in case of an emergency.

Too far often cell phones are used by students to post threats, rumors, or other bullying behavior on social media. We need your help to get this under control.

2. Mental health: Constant screen time and exposure to social media have an adverse effect, especially for teens and children. Many parents said their children appear to be addicted to social media. We need to make sure school is a much-needed break from screen time/social media

3. Lost of instructional time: When students are engaged on their phones, scanning social media, sending text, and surfing the web, they are not engaged in school work. We are determined to make the most out of instructional time. Our commitment is to move students forward academically, for this, we have to protect instructional time.

The proposal is as follows:

Pre-K to 5th grade: Students who bring a cell phone must have it in silent mode and put it away, out of sight, in their backpacks, or in the teacher-provided storage area.

Middle grades 6th-8th: Students who bring a cell phone must have it in silent mode and put it away, out of sight, in their backpacks, or in the teacher-provided storage area.

Students can use their phones during lunchtime or during a time authorized by the classroom teacher for a specific instructional activity.

High grades 9th-12th: Students who bring a cell phone must have it in silent mode and out of sight, in their backpack, or in the teacher-provided storage area.

Students can use their phones during lunchtime, in between class periods, or during a time authorized by the classroom teacher for a specific instructional activity.

This also includes extracurricular activities and co-curricular activities.

We will work with families to make accommodations for students with disabilities or special needs.

The rules will be enforced and we don't want this to be a surprise to anyone.

We believe this policy is fair to students and more conducive to focusing on what we are here for teaching and learning! Communication on this will continue as the school year goes by.

Thank you!

1. Devices belong to parents, not kids: Having a phone or tablet is a privilege, not a right. Parents must be in control of when and how these devices are used, know their passwords, and be aware of how the kids are spending their time online. There are "cell phone contracts" available online to set up clear rules and expectations of use.

2. Understand internet safety, inside and out: You can’t erase what you put online or the experiences that you have there. The ramifications of that behavior can run from broken friendships to brushes with the law.

NetSmartz, by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, is a great place to learn about using the Internet safely, as well as to better understand situations like cyberbullying. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also has its own resource for the basics of how to protect yourself and your family online.

The more informed you and your kids are about Internet safety, the better — and safer — your experiences will be.

3. Parents will set restrictions on devices as needed: You can set age restrictions on the apps the phone is able to download, remove apps/games from the phone, remove Internet access — and, generally, tweak the whole thing so that it becomes completely customized to suit the user’s needs.

There are also several apps that allow parents to control their kids’ phones.

4. Every download must be parent-approved: You might think that this sounds a little extreme, However, there are a lot of apps out there that seem innocent on the surface but actually give our kids access to way more than you will think.

5. Kids are expected to behave as well online as they do in person, if not better: Remind kids about the importance of respecting other people’s privacy (and being mindful of their own), of being kind to others, and of thinking about how others will react to their opinions and comments before they hit “post.” We just need to encourage our kids to think before they type in a chat message, text, comment, or post. (We think that this is an obvious rule, but when you’re a kid, it’s not as top-of-mind.) We need to remind them that once their thoughts are out there, there’s no taking them back. And just as they don’t want their feelings hurt by friends or strangers online, they need to also make sure they aren’t the ones doing the hurting — on purpose or by accident.

6. We are role models for healthy device use: As cool as the Internet is, we also need to make a habit of reminding our kids — and ourselves — that real life is so much better.

In fact, prioritizing real-life moments with a shared laugh or touch, rather than focusing on capturing that moment on a device, is probably the healthiest thing we can model for our 21st-century kids.

So how do we model healthy device usage?

Well, let’s start by putting our phones away more, turning off our notifications, and making sure that they see us without a device in hand on a regular basis. This is the best way to show our kids what truly matters in life — and will increase their likelihood of doing the same.

Look at the example below showing how to translate our main page as well as other informational documents.

You can follow the translation steps for any document that opens up using Word.

Look at the example below:

Email: aknauber@pasco.k12.fl.us
Website: http://www.pasco.k12.fl.us/esol
Location: 7227 Land O' Lakes Boulevard, Land O' Lakes, FL, USA
Phone: 8137942517
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esolpasco
Twitter: @pascoenespanol