Contact: Kate Wallace
Email: media@kateforkids.com
Facebook and Instagram: @kateforkidsfl

This week, more than 117,000 students walked back through the doors of Polk’s public schools: some for the very first time, and seniors for their last, all of them carrying a little bit of nervous excitement that never really goes away.

It’s a reminder of why this work matters. It’s also a good moment to pause and share where Polk County Public Schools stands, because the numbers tell a genuinely encouraging story.

For the 2025-26 school year, PCPS maintained and improved its “B” district grade, with 29 traditional PCPS schools improving their own grades — more than double the number that did the year prior. Our students posted gains in math, science, and English language arts, and our graduation rate climbed to a historic 87.7% district-wide, with traditional high schools reaching 92.7%. That is real, measurable progress, and it belongs to our teachers, our staff, and most of all, our students.

Did You Know?

Here are a few facts about our district that might surprise you:

Polk County ranks 61st out of Florida’s 67 school districts in per-pupil funding and is one of the lowest-funded districts in the entire state. This is in part due to Polk County likely being the only school district in America with more than 100,000 students but no urban core. In other words, we have all the needs and challenges of a large urban district, but we have the density and tax base of a rural one. That makes our improvement all the more impressive.

PCPS is the 7th largest school district in Florida and among the 30 largest in the entire country, serving over 117,000 students across more than 120 schools. We are also the second-largest employer in Polk County, operating on an annual budget approaching $2.5 billion. We offer nearly 30 nationally certified career academies, six Florida Arts Model Schools, and a number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Cambridge International programs for students seeking a head start on college.

Our commitment to a well-rounded education extends well beyond the classroom. PCPS offers rich fine arts programming in music, theatre, dance, and visual arts at schools across the district, and Florida’s new Seal of Fine Arts allows top-performing seniors to have that achievement noted right on their diploma.

Our student-athletes are proving just as strong off the field as on it: last year, the average unweighted GPA across all PCPS student-athletes was 3.225, and all 15 traditional public high schools posted team GPAs above 3.0 on their fall varsity rosters. Mulberry High led the district with a 3.629 team GPA — proof that Panther pride and academic pride go hand in hand.

And a few practical notes as your family settles into the school year: every PCPS student receives free breakfast and lunch, no paperwork or eligibility check required. Our nutrition teams serve more than 67,000 lunches and 33,000 breakfasts daily. Every student also has access to free telehealth services through Hazel Health, connecting them with a licensed medical or mental health professional from home, at no cost, with parental consent.

If you haven’t yet, I’d encourage every parent and guardian to set up a free Parent Portal account at polkschoolsfl.com/parentportal. It’s the single best tool for tracking grades, attendance, bus routes in real time, and direct communication with teachers.

One more thing: more than 45,000 Polk County children ride a bus to school. Our buses travel the same distance of two equators every day. Please, when you see those flashing lights and an extended stop sign, stop. Our Safe Stop cameras have already logged more than 22,000 violations of drivers illegally passing stopped school buses. Every one of those is a child’s life at risk. It takes 30 extra seconds to keep a kid safe.

The start of a school year always feels like a fresh page: for students, for teachers, and for those of us who get the privilege of serving them. I’m grateful for the difference our staff, volunteers and partners are delivering in our classrooms every day, and I look forward to sharing more of it with you throughout the year.

Here’s to a great 2026-27 school year, Polk County!

Kate Wallace serves as the Polk County School Board Member for District 3.

Source: Mid Florida Newspapers, “Welcome back, Polk County: A look at where our schools stand”