Class of COVID-19

The 2021 series, a collaboration of Florida Public Media radio stations, earned a national Edward R. Murrow Award in the digital category for large radio markets.

With the help of a West Palm Beach nonprofit, this teen made it through the pandemic and his high school career.

In December, we profiled Lilia Francois,a social worker with Broward schools trying track students missing class during the pandemic. Months later, we catch up — again in front of a student's door.

Last spring, the coronavirus pandemic forced schools across the state to shut down, and teachers to move their lessons online, which Denise Wilson said was a struggle from the start for her son Brady. He is among the nearly 15% of public school students in Florida who have a disability and receive special education services.

When schools shut down last spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the closures were especially difficult for families of children with disabilities or severe medical conditions. Then came perhaps an even tougher dilemma: what to do when schools reopened in the fall.

It's long been true that some students who attend Monroe County schools struggle with not having enough to eat, and COVID-19 has made the situation worse. Educators say the pandemic also has led to new solutions for student hunger.

By the time Lilia Francois gets behind the wheel, a school has tried everything else to locate the child missing from class.

Throughout history, each generation has wanted better opportunities for the next. And for many migrant farmworkers, getting a better education for their children is a key value. But economic hardships often force teenage migrants to leave school early and go to work.

Students at historically Black colleges and universities in Florida are finding different ways to cope with illness, grief, family obligations and uncertainty. For the multiethnic Black community, COVID-19 has been an added stressor atop another centuries-long pandemic: racial injustice.

WUSF's Kerry Sheridan and project editor Jessica Bakeman talk about the series of education stories and how vulnerable populations of students are facing the educational challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.