Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is the public school district that serves the residents of Miami-Dade County in the United States. It is one of the few public school districts in the US that offer optional international studies and bilingual education programs. The district contains 516 schools and 334,261 students, with a minority enrollment of 90%.Bilingual education is available in Spanish, French, German, Haitian Creole and Mandarin Chinese. M-DCPS is the only school district in Florida to provide bilingual education in Mandarin.
The population of Miami increased significantly during World War II, resulting in the opening of 16 high schools, 30 middle schools, and 45 elementary schools between 1945 and 1975. In 1975, school boundaries were created to allow any student to attend the nearest school regardless of race or ethnicity. This law caused a sudden drop in the school population due to a teachers' strike, which ended rampant overpopulation and forced the closure of 11 schools. However, students who had left the school system to go to private schools began to return in the mid-1980s. In 1997, Dade County officially changed its name to Miami-Dade County, and the school board followed suit. In October 2001, Deputy Superintendent Henry Fraind retired under pressure after it was discovered that a cabal of long-time managers and powerful outsiders had taken advantage of the district's vast resources. The student breakdown is as follows: 350,101 students are served in 528 schools, with their teachers having funded 23,686 projects through DonorsChoose.
Coconut Grove's first school, built in 1887, served as a religious and educational center for the pioneer community. Miami-Dade County public schools have received support from 31,962 people from Florida and 15,302 people from other states. This demanding international language curriculum is fully accredited by the governments of Spain, France and Germany, and is implemented through comprehensive agreements between the Ministries of Education of partner countries and the public schools of Miami-Dade County. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Dade County was praised for its speed in rebuilding and reopening schools. By the end of the academic year, nearly half of the county's schools had desegregated when parents were given the option to enroll their children in any school in the district provided they had adequate transportation. In 1986, M-DCPS initiated its first Magnet International Studies Program at Sunset Elementary School - one of the first programs of its kind in the United States. Miami Northwestern opened its doors in 1951 to replace D.
A. Dorsey High School which became an adult education center until schools were desegregated. MDCPS owns and operates WLRN-TV (Channel 1), a PBS member television station, and WLRN-FM (91.3 FM), an NPR member radio station.
