The Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) plans to take precautions on Monday afternoon during the solar eclipse.

According to an ACPS release sent Thursday, there will be no outdoor activities held at local schools between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 8. After-school programs, physical education classes, sports and band practices and other activities will be held indoors, canceled or postponed.

School dismissal times will remain the same, but parents will be allowed to keep their children at home or check them out of school early, those absences/early check-outs will be excused. The standard check-out procedures throughout the school district will be followed.

School staff and teachers will remind students throughout the day not to look directly at the sun during the eclipse or at any other time, and bus drivers will also caution riders about looking at the sun.

The same precautions were taken during the solar eclipse that took place in August 2017.

Phone and email messages are being sent to parents to inform them of the precautions being taken, and the district has set up a website at www.sbac.edu/eclipse2024 with more information, including a document with safety tips and a link to a NASA website that includes a list of vendors for safety-certified glasses and viewing devices (https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/safety/).