Students in Miami-Dade County returned to school Aug. 13, although several campuses did not reopen after a school board decision to close or consolidate them with others.
Members of the Miami-Dade County School Board voted to close and, in some cases, consolidate, nine schools in the area during a June 17 meeting. The plan was previously recommended by the district's Attendance Boundary Committee.
Miami-Dade school closures
The schools set to close and/or be merged for the 2026-2027 school year include:
- Mandarin Lakes K-8 Academy, set to close.
- Robert Russa Moton Elementary, set to close.
- Parkway Elementary, set to close.
- Rainbow Park Elementary, set to close.
- Phillis Wheatley Elementary, set to close.
- Lenora B. Smith Elementary school, set to be combined with Georgia Jones-Ayers Middle, becoming a K-8 center.
- Miami Springs Middle, set to be combined with Miami Springs Senior to become a 6-12 school.
- Pine Villa Elementary School, set to be combined with Arthur & Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts in order to form a K-12 school.
- Richmond Heights Middle, set to be combined with BioTech at Richmond Heights 9-12 to form a 6-12 school.
Though most campuses of the merging schools neighbor one another, Miami Springs Middle and Miami Springs High are about a mile and a half apart.
"These schools serve some of the highest-poverty communities in Miami-Dade," said Lissette Fernandez, co-founder of Moms for Libros,
during the meeting. "The state has underfunded public schools to the point where this district is closing the schools that serve children who have the least."
The closures and consolidations come amid declining student enrollment — the Miami-Dade County School District had 313,220 students enrolled at the start of the 2025-2026 school year, down around 13,000 from the start of the 2024-25 school year. It’s a dip that WLRN previously reported has been frequently attributed to Florida’s expanded voucher program, which allowed for the rapid growth of charter and private schools.
Miami-Dade County officials, however, said the drop is partially due to fewer immigrant families moving to South Florida.
Florida public schools drop in student enrollment
The five largest school districts in Florida by enrollment, including Miami-Dade and Broward, have collectively lost about 67,000 non-charter students from the 2023-2024 school year through the 2025-2026 school year.
That’s according to figures compiled by the Lee County school district, provided in May as part of a discussion surrounding its “budget realignment.” The numbers are as of February 2026, and refer to total membership for grades from PreK-12.
From 2023-2024 to 2024-2025, Miami-Dade Public Schools lost 6,947 non-charter students and gained 1,331 charter students. From 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, the district lost 15,288 non-charter students and gained 428 charter students. In February, the district had 232,617 non-charter students enrolled for the 2025-2026 year, along with 86,802 charter students.
In Broward, meanwhile, the district lost 9,512 non-charter students from 2023-2024 to 2024-2025 and gained 68 charter school students. From 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, the district lost 6,955 non-charter students and 1,328 charter students. The district had 185,864 non-charter students enrolled at the start of the 2025-2026 year, as well as 48,460 charter students.
Collectively, the Broward and Miami-Dade school districts lost 38,702 non-charter students from 2023-2024 through 2025-2026.
Sarah Perkel is a South Florida Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Florida Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami-Dade students return to class today. Which schools stayed closed
