Graduation rates throughout Central Florida have increased year over year in every public school district in Central Florida.
In Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia’s public schools, a higher percentage of seniors graduated last school year, than the year prior.
That’s according to data from the Florida Department of Education released Tuesday to correspond with the governor’s State of the State address.
Here’s the graduation rates for Central Florida districts:
- Brevard: 92.7%
- Flagler: 89.5%
- Lake: 94.4%
- Marion: 84.7%
- Orange: 92.7%
- Osceola: 91.1%
- Polk: 87.7%
- Seminole: 94.4%
- Sumter: 95.4%
- Volusia: 95.6%
The state commissioner of education celebrated Florida’s gains.
“These achievements demonstrate what can be accomplished when we uphold rigorous standards, provide robust support to schools and prepare every student for success beyond graduation,” said Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas.
In his address, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state had an 92.2% graduation rate last school year, the highest in state history, and 2.5 percentage points over the 2023-2024 school year.
“Today, we have universal school choice and rank as the number one state in the union for parental empowerment and education freedom to better measure performance,” DeSantis said. “We replace high stakes testing with more reliable and consistent progress monitoring.”
The news comes as public school districts throughout Central Florida and the state grapple with under-enrollment and budget shortfalls.
Orange County Public Schools has lost over 5,000 students this school year alone, and is in a $41 million dollar budget deficit. OCPS is considering closing seven schools as a result.
Brevard Public Schools is also considering closing a school.
The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, described the current moment in the following way, in a rebuttal of DeSantis’ State of the State address:
“Anti-public education corporate interests at both the state and the federal level have pushed the privatization of public education as the magical fix for a chronic lack of investment in public schools, all the while creating systems that drain our public schools of billions of dollars each year.”
The union said educator pay isn’t keeping up with rising costs. “Unsustainable policy," the rebuttal said, “has led to teacher and education staff professional vacancies that are getting harder and harder to fill.”
Experts warn that with recent Florida laws that made it easier to turn public schools into charter schools, and newly filed bills in the Legislature, more of Florida's public schools will close or be converted for other uses, if nothing changes.
Here’s a summary of the Florida DOE data:
- The 2024-25 graduation rates rose to 92.2%, an increase of 2.5 percentage points over last year and 4.9 percentage points since 2021-22.
- All student subgroups increased their graduation rates in both the 1-year and 3-year comparisons.
- English Language Learners saw the largest gains, increasing 5.6 percentage points over last year and 13.3 percentage points since 2021-22.
- African American students’ graduation rate increased by 3.9 percentage points over last year and 7.2 percentage points since 2021-22.
- Hispanic students’ graduation rate increased by 2.6 percentage points over last year and 5.7 percentage points since 2021-22.
- The graduation rate for students with disabilities increased by 2.3 percentage points over last year and 5.6 percentage points since 2021-22.
- Economically disadvantaged students’ graduation rate increased by 3.3 percentage points over last year and 6.4 percentage points since 2021-22.
Click here to see how your district did. Find those numbers on page 3, table 3 of the document:
