Amid the ongoing spread of COVID-19, Governor Ron DeSantis announced at a press conference today that all Florida schools will remain closed for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year.

“We’ve got pretty good momentum for distance learning,” DeSantis said. “It’s obviously not the ideal situation but given where we are in the school year, we felt that was the best decision to go forward.”

The Palm Beach County School District distributed more than 62,000 computers to students without computer access, to ensure that all students can participate in distance learning.

Despite the technical ability to complete school online, DeSantis said that closing school will have “social costs” for students who will miss their friends.

“I hope we go back to school on April 15,” communications senior Nikolas Zimmerman wrote last month in a letter to the Class of 2020. “I need to hug and cry and laugh and make memories with my classmates one more time before going to college, and I hope we get the chance to do so.”