According to the requirements of Florida Statute 1003.436, course credit is defined as 135 hours of instruction in a traditional course.  Similarly, the statute defines a course credit for a course delivered through block scheduling as 120 hours of instruction.  For half-credits to be earned, 67.5 credit hours and 60.0 credit hours are required, respectively.  The course credit hours requirement is separate from the FTE instructional minutes requirement; however, both requirements must be met by our schools offering credit-bearing courses.

The statute also requires that the block schedule must be approved by the district school board.  As such, approval is sought for five high schools to use a modified block schedule during the 2018-2019 school year.  These schools include Middleton High School, Robinson High School, Strawberry Crest High School, King High School, and Hillsborough High School.  This course schedule allows students to participate in four courses each day for a longer period length than in the traditional schedule.

There are both academic and logistic benefits to this schedule.  The state also reduces the credit hours requirement when this schedule is used because of the logistics of balancing course hours over the duration of the student calendar.  The attached materials demonstrate the difficulty these schools would have meeting the 135 (or 67.5) credit hours requirement in a block schedule, while also demonstrating their ability to meet the modified 120 (or 60.0) credit hours requirement allowed in statute.