Monthly Topics

Each month during the school year, FPES provides its member newspapers with educational resources for important holidays and observances.

September October November December January February March April May June July August

SEPTEMBER 2024

American Founders’ Month / Constitution Day (Sept. 17) / Celebrate Freedom Week (Sept. 23-27)

American Founders’ Month encourages Florida public schools to coordinate instruction at all grade levels related to the nation’s founders. Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. During Celebrate Freedom Week, Florida social studies classes study the following words from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

September 11

On September 11, 2001, militants associated with the Islamist extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane was crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed during the attacks, including more than 400 police officers and firefighters and 246 passengers and crew on the four planes. This was the most deadly terrorist attack in U.S. history.

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

About 1 in 6 children in the United States has obesity. National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month provides a chance to learn ways to promote healthy growth in children and prevent obesity.

National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15)

Hispanic Heritage Month begins each year on September 15, the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile and Belize also celebrate their independence days during this period.

OCTOBER 2024

National Newspaper Week (Oct. 6-13)

The theme of National Newspaper Week 2024 is Telling Our Stories.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast cancer is the second-most common kind of cancer in American women. About one in eight women born today in the United States will get breast cancer.

National Substance Abuse Prevention Month / Red Ribbon Week

National Substance Abuse Prevention Month is an annual observance focused on raising the public awareness and encouraging communities to take action and get involved to prevent substance use. Each year families, communities, and organizations across the country come together to raise awareness about the importance of substance use prevention and the importance of investing in prevention.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

National Fire Prevention Month

NOVEMBER 2024

Florida Holocaust Education Week (Nov. 4-8)

Holocaust Education Week in Florida is held annually the second week in November which coincides with the anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938.

Veterans Day (Nov. 11)

Florida Recycles Week (Nov. 11-15)

National Native American Heritage Month

DECEMBER 2024

Bill of Rights Day (Dec. 15)

JANUARY 2025

Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Day of Service (Jan. 20)

This American federal holiday celebrating Dr. King’s contribution to the United States and to humankind is observed on the third Monday of each January.

Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! (Jan. 27-31)

The Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! 2025 theme is Building Literacy: Construcing the Foundation for Success.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan. 27) / Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week (27-31)

International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the millions of victims of the Nazi regime and promotes Holocaust education. The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps, by Soviet troops in Poland on Jan. 27, 1945.

National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Florida is one of the top three human trafficking destinations in the United States.

FEBRUARY 2025

Florida Severe Weather Awareness Week (Feb. 3-7) / Statewide Tornado Drill (Feb. 5)

President’s Day (Feb. 17)

Black History Month

Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

MARCH 2025

Read Across America Day (Mar. 2)

Each year, National Read Across America Day is celebrated on or near March 2nd, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

Newspaper in Education Week (Mar. 3-7)

Women’s History Month

National Nutrition Month

APRIL 2025

Earth Day (April 22) 

Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) (Apr. 23-24)

The internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Financial Literacy Month

National Poetry Month

Alcohol Awareness Month

MAY 2025

Law Day (May 1)

The Law Day 2025 theme is “The Constitution’s Promise: Out of Many, One.”

World Press Freedom Day (May 3)

May 3 is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day. It is an opportunity to: celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

National Hurricane Preparedness Week (May 4-10)

Asian American and Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander Heritage Month

JUNE 2025

Juneteenth (June 19)

Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) commemorates the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.

Civic Season (June 19 – July 4)

Civic Season unites our oldest federal holiday with our newest. July 4th commemorates the moment a new nation was born, based on ideals that each generation since has worked to bring to life: freedom, equality, justice and opportunity. Juneteenth, celebrated just a few weeks earlier, reminds us of the struggles and hard-won victories in our ongoing journey to form a “more perfect union.”

JULY 2025
Independence Day (July 4)

AUGUST 2025

National Immunization Awareness Month