Florida

When is spring break for Florida schools? For some it’s after the time change. Every county’s dates

Published

9 months ago

March 10, 2025

Press Room

When is spring break for Florida schools? For some it’s after the time change. Every county’s dates

Hours after the arrival of daylight saving time, students in 9 Florida counties start their spring break.
The majority of Florida counties have scheduled their spring break for the week of March 17.
In some counties, spring break won’t arrive until April.

The end is in sight for the 2024-2025 school year, but before Florida students put away their books, there are a couple of holidays to look forward to.

The big one is spring break, but schedules vary around the state, with most taking the week-long holiday in March. Others have to wait until April.

Students in nine counties are the “lucky” ones.

Spring break for them comes today, the day after the switch to daylight saving time, giving them a week to adjust to the time change.

➤ How many states have joined Florida to make daylight saving time permanent? See the list

Here’s the spring break schedule for all 67 Florida counties, but first, here’s what you should know about the upcoming time change.

When is daylight saving time 2025?

We turned our clocks forward one hour — losing an hour of sleep — at 2 a.m. March 9.

Spring break begins day after time change for 9 Florida counties

After the change to daylight saving time Sunday, March 9, spring break will begin March 10 for these nine Florida counties:

One Florida county schedules spring break week before time change

Students in Sumter County will be the first in the state to enjoy spring break.

They’ll be out of school from March 3-7, which means they’ll return to the classroom after a week holiday, hours after the time change.

Most Florida counties schedule spring break starting March 17

March 17-21 was the week chosen for spring break for the majority — 45 — of Florida’s 67 counties.

Flagler, Monroe and Okaloosa counties actually will begin the spring holiday the Friday before, March 14.

Spring break begins March 24 for 5 counties

Spring break won’t begin until April for 7 Florida counties

Most of the counties scheduling spring break for April, including Good Friday — on April 18 — during the week students will have off.

When is spring break in Florida schools? See alphabetical list

Are there any other holidays before end of 2024-2025 school year?

Yes. Some counties have scheduled a holiday for Good Friday on April 18.

The next holiday is Memorial Day. For students in some counties, the school year ends before the holiday on May 26. For those still going, they will have the day off school on the Monday.

When will daylight saving arrive? When does the time change?

Daylight saving time for 2025 will begin at 2 a.m. EST Sunday, March 9, 2025, and we fall back again at 2 a.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.

This means it will be darker in the morning, so watch for school children heading to the bus stop or heading to school.

What are 2025 federal holidays?

In 2025, there are 12 instead of the usual 11 federal holidays, although two fell on the same day.

Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day both fall on Jan. 20 this year. Since 1965, federal employees in the Washington, D.C., area are entitled to a holiday on the day a president is inaugurated. President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office on Jan. 20.

Here are 2025 federal holidays:

Jan. 1: New Year’s Day
Jan. 20: Inauguration Day; Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Feb. 17: Washington’s Birthday. Many state and local governments designation it as Presidents Day.
May 26: Memorial Day
June 19: Juneteenth
July 4: Independence Day
Sept. 1: Labor Day
Oct. 13: Columbus Day
Nov. 11: Veterans Day
Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day
Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Florida state holidays for 2025

When are 2025 Florida state holidays?

The Florida Department of Management Services lists the following days observed as paid holidays by state agencies:

Jan. 1, Wednesday: New Year’s Day
Jan. 20, Monday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
May 26, Monday: Memorial Day
July 4, Friday: Independence Day
Sept. 1, Monday: Labor Day
Nov. 11, Tuesday: Veterans Day
Nov. 27, Thursday: Thanksgiving
Nov. 28: Friday after Thanksgiving
Dec. 25, Thursday: Christmas Day

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Florida

Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox

Published

7 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

The Florida Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, Dec. 11, filed a lawsuit against popular online gaming platform Roblox, accusing the company of failing to protect its millions of underage users from predatory adults who would “find, groom, and abuse children.”

“Roblox aggressively markets to young children, but fails to protect them from sexual predators,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post to X. “As a father of three little ones and as Florida’s attorney general, my number one priority is simple: to protect our kids.”

The lawsuit claims Florida children have been talked into taking and sending sexual images of themselves and lists several recent incidences, including a 20-year-old California man arrested last month for having sexually explicit conversations with a Palm Coast child and asking for nude photos.

A Roblox spokesperson said the lawsuit “fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works.”

“We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications,” Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement, adding that the company — currently the most downloaded game in the world — will be rolling out additional safeguards “beyond what is required by law and what other platforms do.”

Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox

Can’t see the embedded document? Click here.

What is Roblox?

San Mateo, California-based Roblox, released in 2006, hosts millions of user-created games (or “experiences”) constructed with the platform’s built-in game engine. Any user can create a game and share it with others, and there are millions of games available of all types.

The game platform and most games are free to use, but some cost to play. There is also a thriving economy based on Robux, an in-game virtual currency used to purchase virtual items. Roblox offers a subscription service called Roblox Premium that provides access to more features and a monthly allowance of Roblox.

Voice chat is available, but only for users aged 13 or older with verified ages. Age ratings were introduced for games in 2022, and in 2023, 17+ games were permitted to include more graphic violence, romance, and drinking.

According to Roblox, as of 2020, the monthly playerbase included half of all American children under the age of 16.

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Florida

Florida’s complete 2026 football schedule unveiled

Published

19 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Florida’s complete 2026 football schedule unveiled

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The 2026 football schedule for the Florida Gators has been set. Next year’s slate was unveiled Thursday night on SEC Network.

The most notable dates are Florida’s SEC opener on Sept. 19 — a Week 3 trip to Auburn, where the Gators haven’t played since 2011 — along with a road game at Texas on Oct. 17 and home games against Ole Miss (Sept. 26) and Oklahoma (Nov. 7).

Next season will mark the Sooners’ first-ever visit to Gainesville. The teams have previously played twice in the postseason, with the Gators defeating Oklahoma 24-14 in their first-ever meeting to win the 2008 national championship.

The Gators open the season in The Swamp on Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic. UF’s other non-conference opponents will be Campbell (Sept. 12) and at Florida State (Nov. 28).

Florida is also hosting South Carolina (Oct. 10) and Vanderbilt (Nov. 21). The Gators haven’t played the Gamecocks or the Commodores since 2023.

UF takes on Georgia in Atlanta on Oct. 31 after the bye week. Florida’s other road games are Missouri (Oct. 3), Texas (Oct. 17) and Kentucky (Nov. 14).

The Gators will be led by first-year coach Jon Sumrall. He won the American Conference title with Tulane last week and has the Green Wave in the College Football Playoffs. They will have a rematch against Ole Miss on Dec. 20 in the first round after losing in Oxford, 45-10, on Sept. 20.

Sumrall was back in Gainesville this week to assemble his staff. So far, he has hired offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, defensive coordinator Brade White and defensive line coach Gerald Chatman.

Date	Opponent	Location
Sept. 5	Florida Atlantic	Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 12	Campbell	Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 19	at Auburn	Auburn, Alabama
Sept. 26	Ole Miss	Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 3	at Missouri	Columbia, Missouri
Oct. 10	South Carolina	Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 17	at Texas	Austin, Texas
Oct. 24	Bye
Oct. 31	Georgia	Atlanta, Georgia
Nov. 7	Oklahoma	Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 14	at Kentucky	Lexington, Kentucky
Nov. 21	Vanderbilt	Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 28	at Florida State	Tallahassee, Florida

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Florida

Florida basketball has failed to meet expectations early on

Published

1 day ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Florida basketball has failed to meet expectations early on

A 5-4 start to Florida basketball’s national title defense is not what anyone had in mind — much less, the Gator Nation — but here we are nine games deep into the 2025-26 schedule.

To be fair, three of those losses have come against programs currently ranked among the top five in both major polls and have been off to stellar starts. The Arizona Wildcats, Duke Blue Devils and UConn Huskies are nothing to sneeze at, and while the TCU Horned Frogs are not quite on their tier, all of these losses came either on the road (Duke) or on a neutral court (the other three).

Maybe Todd Golden should reconsider playing in all of these early-season special events in the future. But alas, that is a story for another season.

ESPN thinks Florida has failed to meet expectations

Obviously, with a dominating frontcourt roster returning in full, there was plenty to be optimistic about heading into the campaign. However, the departure of three guards to the NBA and a fourth to the transfer portal has proven to be a void too large to fill with their offseason acquisitions.

And that is the crux of ESPN’s Myron Medcalf’s observation that the Gators have simply not met the bar so far.

“Months after winning a national title with an elite set of guards, Florida’s Todd Golden rebooted his backcourt with former Arkansas star Boogie Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee,” he begins.

“It hasn’t worked out as planned. In Florida’s two-player lineups — an on-court metric at EvanMiya.com that captures how teams perform when specific players are paired together — the Fland-Lee combination ranked 26th within its own team,” Metcalf continues.

“And though Lee scored 19 points against UConn in Tuesday’s game at Madison Square Garden, that loss was another example of the Gators’ limitations when Lee and Fland (1-for-9 combined from 3 against the Huskies) aren’t equally elite on the same night.”

He has not liked what he has seen, and his conclusion is not necessarily unfair.

“Ultimately, Florida hasn’t looked like a defending champion thus far, despite Thomas Haugh (18.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.8 APG) playing like an All-American.”

How does the NET, BPI and KenPom view Florida basketball?

While Medcalf’s assessment comes fully equipped with dark clouds, the objective metrics paint a much more optimistic outlook for the team overall.

According to the NET rankings, Florida is just inside the top 25 at No. 24 — one spot ahead of the Miami Hurricanes, who they beat in Jacksonville back in November. The Gators are 1-3 in Quadrant 1 matchups, 1-1 in Quad 2, 1-0 in Quad 3 and 2-0 in Quad 4.

KenPom views the Orange and Blue even more bullishly, ranking Florida at No. 15 despite the weak record. Golden’s gang currently sits at No. 15 with a plus-26.55 adjusted net rating — up from plus-25.70 (17th) at the end of November, while the offense (120.4) moved up from 24th to 23rd in the nation, and the defense (93.8) has only dropped one place — from 10th to 11th — despite allowing 0.6 fewer points per 100 possessions.

The most optimistic metric for Florida comes from ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, which has the Gators at No. 9 despite a 1-3 stretch over the past two weeks. They have an 18.8 overall BPI, with the offense logging in at 8.5 (22nd) and defense earning a 10.3 (8th) rating recently.

ESPN projects Florida to go 21.0-10.0 overall and 12.2-5.8 in conference play.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

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