CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Clay County District Schools will open the doors to 43 schools on Monday morning to welcome students to the 2025-2026 school year.
The district is expected to serve nearly 40,000 students and employ more than 5,000 staff members this year.
School safety
A 16-year-old student was arrested Saturday after threatening to shoot another student on the first day of class at Orange Park High School, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.
Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook told News4JAX on Monday any threat that comes in will be investigated quickly and thoroughly.
“If that means putting a kid in jail, if that’s where they need to go, that’s what’s going to happen, and that’s why it’s so important for parents to have a conversation with their kids right now about making threats, even threats that they think might be funny or not serious. We take them very seriously,” Cook said.
Cook said ensuring campus safety is nothing new for her agency, and added that they have a solid plan in place to respond to emergencies or other incidents.
“It’s something we plan for, we train for, we practice for, we work with the school administrators on. So, from the time kids get to school to the time that they’re leaving, I want parents to know that their child’s safety is in good hands, because this is something that we take very seriously every single day,” Cook said.
Clay County Sheriff’s Office Assistant of School Safety and Youth Programs Jeremy Clark told News4JAX on Monday that the agency will deploy additional staff during the first week to ensure student safety.
“We have extra staff at the schools and school zones just trying to help everybody acclimate to being back in school,” Clark said.
New bus tracking program
Beginning with the 2025–2026 school year, the Clay County District Schools Transportation Department will implement a new opt-in registration process and a bus tracking program to enhance the safety, visibility, and efficiency of the district’s transportation services.
Parents should also be aware that students who live within 2 miles of their zoned school are not eligible for bus transportation unless a district-approved hazard has been identified.
Clark shared a message to families who may feel a little uneasy during the first week of school.
“The biggest advice I can give them is, be patient there. It’s always a little bit of a thing with regards to traffic and things of that nature. Be patient. It takes a little getting used to for everybody to come back. We need them to pay attention to things like the school zones. There’s been changes to them, there’s changes to the traffic pattern with some of the road construction. So we need them to pay attention to that,” Clark said.
If you believe your child qualifies for a hazard exemption, please complete the necessary form at sdcc.mybusplanner.com.
Clay County School District Superintendent David Broskie told News4JAX last week that the district currently had eight bus driver openings, but added that all of their bus routes were covered for the new school year.
If you have any questions or need assistance, contact the Clay County District Schools Transportation Department by emailing routing@myoneclay.net or calling 904-336-0001, option 2. For a full list of transportation contacts: Click here.
Once you have registered for transportation (instructions here), then you should set up the BusPlanner Chipmunk app to stay informed about your child’s bus.
For instructions for downloading the app, and information on what it provides, click here.
OneClay app
Another new thing parents need to be aware of is the new way to communicate with their child’s teachers.
It is called the OneClay app, and it can be downloaded from the district’s website.
“The whole idea was to streamline communication with parents. One thing we were hearing from parents was that the school had so many different apps that they had to load depending on the teacher, depending on the activity that they were involved with. So we were looking for a way to streamline that in one single app,” Broskie said.
