Hundreds of thousands of South Florida kids go back to school this morning, including 170,000 public school students in Palm Beach County.
School district leaders in the county said families can expect new safety measures, stricter cell phone rules and fewer teachers.
The Palm Beach County schools has lost thousands of teachers in the past five years.
Data from the district shows more than 4,500 teachers have left their posts throughout that time period. That represents a loss of about 900 teachers a year.
In Palm Beach County's case, teacher retention has become even more urgent as enrollment number continue to grow — unlike in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
"Students and their parents have options beyond just their boundaried homeschool. If there's a program that interests them — if they want to go to a pre-law academy or medical sciences or engineering or IT, or you name it, they can apply to those choice programs and go to school and in other parts of the county," said Palm Beach County School Superintendent Mike Burke.
Population growth in Palm Beach County is likely also cushioning school enrollment.
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