For most of the last decade, Florida schools have struggled to head off a growing challenge: more and more students are vaping.

By 2019, the state identified e-cigarettes among the most used substances among middle and high schoolers, with Hillsborough leaders estimating 1 in 4 students had vaped.

But a mere four years later, vaping grew way more prevalent.

According to a Tampa Bay Times analysis of state and district data from the most recent school year available, 2023-24, tobacco-related incidents in Florida schools surged in recent years, and most now involve vaping.

Schools across the state recorded about 24,000 tobacco incidents nearly two years ago. While lower than the previous two years, that total was about 30% more than the year before COVID hit.

Vaping — by far — was the p

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