Broward County Public Schools scales Microsoft 365 Copilot in record K-12 deployment

Florida's Broward County Public Schools serves approximately 235,000 students across 235 schools—not including charter schools—with a workforce of nearly 15,000 teachers and 25,000 total employees. The district's student population is among the most diverse in the country, representing 174 different countries and speaking 157 languages. Broward also operates one of the nation's largest debate and scholastic chess initiatives and offers more than 75 career and technical education pathways.

Yet even districts known for bold moves face financial pressure. When declining enrollment contributed to a budget shortfall exceeding $90 million, Broward’s leadership chose not to retreat, but to reframe the challenge.

They approached the moment with a mindset focused on creating future opportunity, not simply closing gaps. What emerged became known internally as the “Broward Model”: pairing innovative partnerships with at-scale deployment and making deliberate, sometimes radical shifts in operational and organizational models.

Rather than scaling back innovation, the district used financial pressure as a catalyst to modernize systems, rethink how work was done, and accelerate transformation across schools and central operations.

The result: teachers reclaiming six to seven hours per week from administrative work, projected facilities savings of $40–50 million over five years, and the largest K–12 deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot in the world.

“If I had to create a headline for Broward County Public Schools and our use of Microsoft 365 Copilot,” says Superintendent Dr. Howard Hepburn, “it would probably be ‘Broward County Public Schools: Innovator and solution-driven!’”

Dr. Hepburn stepped into the role in April 2024 at a pivotal moment for the district, as leaders were navigating significant financial headwinds. That focus on stability and forward-looking solutions laid the groundwork for thoughtful, systemwide AI adoption.

The timing also aligned with a broader shift in education. As Dr. Sherri Wilson, Director of Innovative Learning, notes, schools are navigating rapid technological change. For Broward, the goal isn’t simply to adopt new tools: it’s to ensure students are prepared for an increasingly AI-driven world. “We don’t have a choice,” Dr. Wilson says. “We have to meet this moment and prepare our students for what’s ahead. If we shy away from what's going on globally, we will be left behind."

Funding innovation through operational efficiency

As the second-largest district in Florida, Broward operates what Dr. Hepburn describes as a large cruise ship. "And cruise ships do not turn around on their own power. It takes a lot of effort by others to make sure that a cruise ship turns and goes in the direction that it needs to go."

Broward’s challenge was complex but clear: strengthen its operating model while sustaining its mission. “We were facing a significant budget shortfall,” explains Chief Information Officer Trey Davis. “We had to look at transforming how we operate through the innovative use of technology.” The goal wasn't simply cost containment—it was achieving operational efficiency at scale to support long-term impact. Davis shares more about navigating that balance on the SuperSpeaks podcast.

With annual utility costs of $55 million and more than $80 million in facilities maintenance labor, the district was managing extraordinary operational complexity. To address these challenges, BCPS began exploring smart building strategies, including working with Willow, an Operational AI platform for the built world and Microsoft Frontier Partner, to develop a “digital twin” of its campuses. Using historical data, Willow identified significant operational inefficiencies, helping the district establish long-term efficiency goals and projected savings that are now informing how the district plans to sustainably fund its ambitious Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout.

In a system as large as Broward, alignment also matters. Ensuring collaboration across teams—and avoiding unintentional silos—became an important priority as the district looked to operate more cohesively and effectively. The question became: what technology foundation could unlock efficiency at scale, provide real-time insight, and integrate seamlessly across a complex organization?

Moving from data collection to real-time decision making

Broward’s decision to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot at unprecedented scale was deliberate and strategic. “We are a Microsoft 365 ecosystem,” says Davis. “It was critical that our foundational AI integrate seamlessly with that environment.”

The choice wasn’t just about compatibility: it was about unlocking insight. “We’re data rich,” explains Dr. Hepburn, “but we were poor at creating that level of insight necessary to have real-time decision making for real-time impact. We just didn't have those capabilities before. But now, with Microsoft 365 Copilot, we can maximize those opportunities.” For example, the district utilized Microsoft-partnered AI agents to create an overtime dashboard, instantly transforming raw administrative data into actionable, real-time insights.

Security and privacy were nonnegotiable. “We have a security-first mindset,” Davis adds. “We needed enterprise-grade protection, especially around student data privacy, and we felt confident in Microsoft’s platform and tenant services.”

The district deployed 20,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses—the largest K–12 adoption globally—providing access to teachers, administrators, and staff. Leaders deliberately chose this districtwide, 'all-in' approach to break down functional silos and address systemic inefficiencies across the board. Learners in Nova High School’s AI Academy are going further, building custom agents with Copilot Studio.

Dr. Hepburn’s own experience helped accelerate districtwide adoption. “As a superintendent, I was working 15–18 hour days with no weekends,” he says. “I’m a dad and a husband, and I got my weekends back.” Using Copilot to create agendas and analyze data in real time allowed him to focus less on preparation and more on problem solving.

The shift carried into cabinet meetings. “We’re not spending hours hammering out the problem,” he explains. “We’re focused on implementing solutions.”

Davis saw similar gains. “Preparing for board meetings can mean reviewing hundreds of pages of documents,” he says. “I use Copilot Notebook to distill them down to a short audio summary so I can quickly identify what requires action.”

Creating space for direct student engagement

At the same time, leaders were focused on instructional time. Like many districts nationwide, Broward recognized that educators were balancing increasing demands beyond direct teaching. “There’s never enough time to teach every standard to the level you’d like and ensure students reach proficiency,” says Dr. Wilson.

The classroom impact has been immediate. “From very early on, I noticed that I could do assignments very quickly,” says Hermes Abrantes, who leads the district’s first AI Academy at Nova High School. “You can shorten that time by an order of magnitude. And so then it becomes a question of how do I reinvest that time, and that is where I'm really finding the benefits. Now I'm able to pay more attention to those students who need more accommodations, who need differentiated learning. I can challenge students more.”

Across the district, teachers report reclaiming six to seven hours weekly from tasks like lesson planning, freeing them to spend more time where learning happens. Copilot is also reshaping how educators approach differentiated instruction. Dr. Hepburn recalls a new teacher who used student interest data collected on the first day of class to create individualized versions for every learner. “She was leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot to personalize learning for every student in her classroom,” he says.

Dr. Wilson frames the shift in terms of what it unlocks for practitioners: “Copilot helps teachers create individualized pathways, not just by performance trends, but by what matters to students in their own academic journeys.”

Measurable academic progress and student-led innovation

The impact extends to student achievement. Schools implementing Microsoft’s AI-powered Learning Accelerators, including Reading Progress, saw measurable gains. “Schools previously on the state watch list for reading were removed,” Davis notes, citing Reading Progress as a key support.

Additionally, Boyd Anderson High School integrated Reading Progress across all subject areas and earned an A rating.

Students are also experiencing the benefits firsthand. Landyn Spellberg, Student Advisor representing 235,000 students, points to significant proficiency gains coinciding with Copilot adoption. He highlights the equity impact: “For students with disabilities, English language learners, and historically underperforming students, these tools are helping them tremendously.”

In a district where 90% of students are minorities and 35% are economically disadvantaged, these equity gains matter profoundly. The AI tools are helping level a playing field that's historically been uneven, not by lowering standards, but by providing personalized support at scale and turning students into builders.

In the AI Academy, students are building solutions of their own. Senior Sophia Mazumdar developed an AI agent that analyzes transcripts and alerts students, parents, and counselors if graduation requirements are off track. Jancarlos Reyes Santana, interested in cybersecurity, is creating chatbots to help families navigate the district’s website, using Copilot Studio to simplify access across a system serving hundreds of thousands.

Students are even contributing to district improvement. Landyn describes managing the district's quarterly student survey: "We received, across two quarters, 92,000 student responses... We are able to download a zip file of those 92,000 responses, put it into Copilot, and get a perfectly written executive summary to share out with other students, to share out with administrators, to share out with teachers."

A blueprint for implementation and future innovation

Broward's leaders know that technology alone doesn't create lasting change: people do. That's why the district's sustainability strategy focuses on building capacity at every level. Dr. Wilson established AI Liaisons—principal-appointed teacher leaders and administrators who champion implementation at school sites—creating a direct bridge between district strategy and classroom practice.

The district also launched the TIES Expo (Technology, Innovation, Ethics, and Support), where vendors showcase AI-powered tools and educators evaluate them—“almost a Shark Tank review,” Dr. Wilson notes—ensuring adoption decisions remain grounded in classroom reality.

For districts considering a similar path, Broward’s leaders are direct. “Stop talking and dive into it,” urges Dr. Hepburn. “Tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot help you turn insight into action immediately.”

Davis adds that success requires organizational alignment. Look at your culture, look at your organizational architecture and your structure, realizing that you can't work in functional silos. You've got to be value driven."

The district's vision remains clear. As Dr. Wilson articulates: “We're on a brink of a technology revolution, and AI is definitely the catalyst for that. That’s why it is so important that we expose our students to tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot, so they're not just surviving in the future: they're actually leading the future.”

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