Due to concerns from parents about their children having to come back to school after being home all year to take state tests, the state of Florida has decided to give schools more time to spread out tests. According to Bay News 9, “Florida Department of Education commissioner Richard Corcoran, announced Monday that Florida Standards assessments testing schedule will be extended.” Florida schools will now get two additional weeks to complete state testing in a matter that is safe for students. In order to keep students safe and bringing students that were online back to schools to test. The Tampa Bay Times reported, “Tampa Bay superintendents have said they are exploring the idea of bringing in smaller groups of students at night and on weekends.” But this does not please some parents like the state thought that it would. One parent said, “Extending the testing window doesn’t make testing any safer.” She feels that even if kids are spread out it, only takes one person that is positive to spread COVID-19. And if students are going to take tests at night and on the weekend, they need teachers to proctor the test, making them work overtime during this already tough time.

     A student at Osceola said, “I would feel bad because I use that time to relax and take a break from school, and so taking a state test instead wouldn’t work well because I would be tired.”  Kids already spend so much time testing during the week, but then if you ask them to take time out of their weekend to take a test, that might lower scores. Some wonder if students would be able to decide if they would rather go take their test at school with more people or if they could take it with less people on the weekend.  This is a question that will have to be taken into consideration when making this decision.