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By: Jen Russon

By the time Broward County Public School students become seniors, they must have a minimum of 40 learning service hours to receive a standard diploma; these hours can be attained through participation in school clubs and organizations that mostly meet after school.

That requirement has been waived due to the constraints of social distance during the COVID-19 crisis; however, for students who seek Bright Futures scholarships, volunteer service hours must be submitted to the school registrar.

“Regarding community service hours, we are aware that some seniors will need service hours for Bright Future opportunities,” said Treshell Williams, Registrar at J.P. Taravella. She said to ensure they are eligible, to please submit their service hour logs.

She added all underclassmen (grades 9-11) service hour submission will resume once schools have reopened, and that transcript requests can still be sent via Naviance.

Nadine Drew, communications officer with BCPS, said School Counseling & BRACE Advisement Department waived the 40-hour service requirement at the local level.

“As students can’t go into the community, they can’t exactly do community service. So, this year’s seniors get a hall pass on service to earn a diploma,” said Drew.

As to Florida Bright Futures, she indicated they had not revised their eligibility criteria, yet. Therefore, students still need community service to qualify for several of those scholarships and are advised to submit their service hours to the school they attend, so these may be included on the student’s transcripts when the state receives them.

Drew said that the Superintendent of Broward County schools, Robert Runcie, will announce how senior graduation ceremonies will be handled later this week.

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