OCPS Community Connect Resources

The OCPS Student Services department has collaborated with FindHelp.org to create a customized search engine to help staff, families, and the community better navigate needed social services and resources.

Just go to COMMUNITY CONNECT and enter your ZIP code. The website can help you find resources for:

• Housing
• Mental Health
• Health Care
• Financial Support
• Job Services
• And more...

The information on the site can be translated into more than 100 languages. Just click on the Select Language bar in the top left and choose your preferred language.

If you are requesting a waiver for the required Physical Education class, please complete the form below and email it to your guidance counselor.  

English

Portuguese

Spanish

Florida High School Graduation Requirements

It's never too early to start planning for graduation. Water Spring Middle School offers high-school level classes for students to get ahead.

Below are the course requirements for the Standard Diploma, but please use these links to go to the Florida Department of Education’s site for the most up-to-date requirements for all diploma types:

Florida High School Diploma Requirements

Requisitos de Diploma Estándar Asesoría Académica

Welcome Future Wildcats!

Below you will find some information especially for you, which will be updated as the year progresses and we get closeer to your arrival:

1. Counselors will visit our feeder schools (Water Spring ES, Atwater Bay ES, Panther Lake ES) in early spring to:
   1. Meet with students and explain how schedules in middle school work
   2. Describe the various electives that are available for them to choose
   3. Hand out forms for them to select their top choices for electives
   4. Please note that academic subjects are chosen by the counselors, based on grades and test scores to best ensure that students will be successful in middle school
   5. Your 6^th grade counselor for the 2026-27 school year will be Ms. Merlinda Bennett
2. Students coming from another elementary school in the county will need to:
   1. Update their address with their current school to an address zoned for Water Spring MS
   2. A google form with elective choices will be posted here for students to select their top choices for electives (and any students that were absent when the counselors came to their school)
3. There are no forms to complete to transfer from elementary to your zoned middle school – that process happens automatically in late July.  
   1. Until that process happens, students are not considered “active” at our school and we cannot send out communications automatically to you.
   2. Please be sure to follow our Facebook page, and that of our PTSO group, to get all the up to the minute notifications of happenings at the school
   3. Elementary schools will be contacting you to verify your address as part of the normal process they must complete to ensure they are transferring students correctly
4. Bus schedules will not be available until late July or early August
   1. Be sure to sign up for bus service in the spring in Skyward Parent, if you require it and are eligible – look for the form for 2026-27 Bus Transportation
   2. Our Transportation department needs this feedback in order to create the routes
   3. To determine if you are eligible, you can enter your address in the current bus finder tool on our website – although the route will change over the summer, if the finder shows that a bus is available, then you will know that you are elgible for the next year as well
5. Have a look around our website to familiarize yourself with athletics, after school activities, curriculum and more!
6. We will have a new student orientation (Wildcat Wander) and Meet the Teacher event before the start of school, usually the week before
   1. Please watch our Facebook page for details during the summer, as we will post them there once the plans are finalized
7. Breathe!  It’s a big step, but we will work together to make it a great year for your student!