ORLANDO — Three hundred elementary schools — and likely at least a handful in Central Florida — will have to add an hour to their day next year, using the time for extra reading instruction, under the budget the Florida Legislature just approved. For the past two years, 100 schools with low FCAT reading scores had to extend their day by an hour, but lawmakers want that list to grow.
More than 70 percent of the schools that implemented the longer day two years ago saw gains in the percentage of their students reading at grade level, according to legislative researchers.
Sen. David Simmons, R-Maitland, pushed the effort starting in 2012, convinced more time in class would help Florida students struggling with the basics.
