The 2023 Florida Legislative Session begins on March 7, 2023. Prior to that, committee meetings have been taking place. An estimated 150 education-related bills have been filed. Listed below are the key bills that will impact K-12 public education and charter schools.
Our advocacy team is lead by Ralph Arza. We are also working with Continental Strategies, led by Ambassador Carlos Trujillo (retired), this legislative session. The FCSA advocates in Tallahassee on behalf of the charter school movement and the more than 362,000 students and families who have opted to attend a public charter school. In preparation for this year’s session, the FCSA surveyed member school leaders, volunteer governing board members, and other stakeholders to identify critical issues that they want lawmakers to address. See our priorities here.
Education and charter school related bills we are following:
HB 1: School Choice – UPDATE 3/28/23 – Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill expands eligibility for the Florida Tax Credit and Family Empowerment Scholarship to any student who is a resident of Florida and is eligible to enroll in kindergarten through grade 12 in a public school. More about universal school choice.
HB 19 – Individual Education Plans
Individual Education Plans; Requires IEPs for certain students to contain information on legal rights & responsibilities that transfer to students at age 18; requires information to include ways in which student may provide informed consent to allow his or her parent to continue to participate in educational decisions. More about HB 19
HB 31 – Partisan Elections for Members of District School Board
Would ask voters if they want to switch from nonpartisan school board races to partisan contests starting in 2026. It’s a constitutional amendment that requires 60 percent approval from voters to take effect. Link to Bill.
HB 141 – Guidance Services on Academic and Career Planning
Requires students & parents be informed of certain acceleration, academic & career planning options; requires personalized academic & career plan be developed in consultation with certified school counselor for certain students; requires certain information to be included in such plan. The bill expands the required annual school district parental notification on high school acceleration options to include notification to students and requires such notification to be in a language that is understandable to students and parents. The notification must also include information on the following:
-
- career and professional academies;
- career-themed courses;
- the career and technical education (CTE) pathway option to earn a standard high school
- diploma;
- work-based learning opportunities, including internships and apprenticeship and
- preapprenticeship programs; and
- the contact information of a certified school counselor who can advise the student on the
- acceleration, academic, and career planning options.
SB 202 – K-12 Education
Revising student eligibility and ineligibility requirements for the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program; revising obligations of eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organizations; revising student eligibility and ineligibility requirements for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program; authorizing public schools, including charter schools, to enroll certain students on a part-time basis; requiring the State Board of Education to provide recommendations by a specified date to the Governor and the Legislature for repeals and revisions of the Florida Early Learning-20 Education Code to be considered in the 2024 legislative session; authorizing vehicles other than buses to transport students; authorizing district school boards to use advanced degrees in setting salary schedules for instructional personnel or school administrators, etc. Link to bill.
HB 223 – Public School Student Progression for Students With Disabilities
Requires comprehensive plans for student progression to provide for specified students with disabilities to be retained in prekindergarten at discretion of student’s parent; authorizes certain prekindergarten students to receive instruction in early literacy skills, rather than intensive reading interventions; requires certain prekindergarten students to receive such instruction; & revises requirements for certain students with disabilities to receive good cause exemption from mandatory retention in grade 3. Link to bill.
SB240 – UPDATE 5/1/23
The bill passed the Senate and moves to the House for consideration.
The bill would create a $102 million workforce fund for career and technical education programs as well as incentives to expand apprenticeships, work-based learning and career certification pathways, The companion bill, HB7051, is on the House floor.
SB 244 – UPDATE 5/1/23
An amended version of the bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support and now heads back to the House for consideration. The Senate heard HB1035 on Teacher Training and Conduct and amended the Teacher Apprenticeship Bill, SB244, onto it.
SB 256 – Employee Organizations Representing Public Employees – UPDATE 5/1/23 – A bill that prohibit public school teacher unions from automatically deducting dues from teachers’ paychecks passed the legislature and awaits a signature from Governor DeSantis.
SB 294 – Required Instruction in the History of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Required Instruction in the History of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; Requiring that the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders be taught in the public schools; requiring that instructional materials used in teaching this subject area include specified information, etc. Link to bill
SB 308 – Interscholastic and Intrascholastic Activities
Providing for the approval of athletic associations that meet certain requirements; providing that private schools and traditional public schools are considered high schools for specified purposes; authorizing home education students, Florida Virtual School students, and private school students to participate in interscholastic and intrascholastic activities at certain schools; requiring certain athletic associations to adopt bylaws, policies, or procedures allowing opening remarks at specified events, etc. Link to SB 308
HB 443 UPDATE 4/28/2023 The House passed as amended; YEAS 109, NAYS 0. Link to the bill.
HB 443 revises & creates provisions relating to charter schools, private tutoring, placement posters containing specified information relating to choking, adjunct teaching certificates, & Florida Teachers Classroom Supply Assistance Program.
HB 477 – Term Limits for District School Board Members
UPDATE 5/1/23 – District school board members could serve no more than eight consecutive years (two, four-year terms) in office under H.B. 477 — approved by the Senate and House, and now heading to Gov. DeSantis for consideration. Link to bill. The bill would apply to terms beginning in Nov 2022, but board members re-elected to a consecutive term last year can still serve another eight years before being term-limited.
SB 478 – Early Childhood Music Education Incentive Program
Renaming the Early Childhood Music Education Incentive Pilot Program as the Early Childhood Music Education Incentive Program; revising criteria for a school district’s eligibility to participate in the program; deleting an obsolete provision requiring the University of Florida’s College of Education to conduct a specified evaluation, etc. Link to Bill
SB 636 – Individual Education Plans
Requiring individual education plans for certain students to contain information and instruction on certain legal rights and responsibilities that transfer to students at the age of 18; requiring such information to include ways in which a student may provide informed consent to allow his or her parent to continue to participate in his or her educational decisions, etc. Link to Bill.
SB 758 – Reading Strategies
Requiring that certain reading instructional and intervention programs exclude specified programs; requiring that certain instructional materials exclude specified materials; revising a requirement pertaining to school districts’ comprehensive reading plans; requiring that certain teacher training exclude specified training, etc. Link to Bill.
SB 766 – Photographic Enforcement of School Bus Safety
Authorizes school districts to install and operate side stop signal arm enforcement systems on school buses. Link to Bill.
SB 780 – Computer Science Instruction In K-12 Public Schools
Establishes requirements for computer science courses, Florida Virtual School computer science courses, and instruction. Link to Bill.
SB 794 Growing Teachers from Within Pilot Program
One of the many bills have been filed that improve teacher recruitment, retention and compensation, including Governor Ron DeSantis’ Conforming Bills for the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers and Teacher Salary Increase Allocation
The governor’s recruitment bill includes the creation of a teacher apprenticeship program. Sen. Harrell’s bill creates the Growing Teachers from Within Pilot Program to help alleviate the teacher shortage by supporting non-instructional public school employees gain their teaching certificate. There are also provisions in the governor’s and Sen. Simon’s bills to provide flexibility for individuals to meet certification requirements and extend the duration of a temporary teaching certificate from three to five years. Read SB 794 here.
HB 817 – Health Education Information
Requires school districts to ensure information on their website relating to reproductive health & disease education is accurate & up-to-date & send certain notifications to parents. Link to Bill.
SB 826 – Standard High School Diploma Award Requirements
Adding a new requirement for the award of a standard high school diploma to Academically Challenging Curriculum to Enhance Learning students; requiring students, beginning with those entering grade 9 in a specified school year, to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid in order to be awarded a standard high school diploma, etc. The bill amends certain provisions including: student achievement for charter school capital outlay funding eligibility — Under the bill, a charter school that meets the eligibility requirements under the law will be eligible for charter capital outlay funding, so long as the school has not earned two consecutive grades of “F” or three consecutive grades below a “C”; and authorizes a charter school governing board to adopt rules to allow for the issuance of an adjunct teaching certificate to any applicant who fulfills the certification requirements under the law. Link to Bill.
HB 857 – Charter Schools
Revises provisions relating to charter school charters, governing boards, standard monitoring tool, & charter school capital outlay funding; & authorizes charter schools to issue adjunct teaching certificates.. Link to Bill. Companion bill: SB 1680.
HB 913 – Charter School Loans
Establishes Charter School Revolving Loan Program; providing requirements for program, DOE, & third-party administrator; provides appropriation. Link to Bill.
HB 985, Video Cameras in Certain Public School Classrooms
Would require video cameras to be placed in certain public and charter school classrooms. Teachers in the classrooms with cameras would have to wear microphones during the school day. Link to Bill.
SB 986 Charter School Enrollment preference
Revising which students may be given an enrollment preference by charter schools; specifying training and reporting requirements for charter school sponsors; requiring the State Board of Education to adopt rules to implement a standard monitoring tool; revising how a district school board calculates certain teachers’ shares of funds from the Florida Teachers Classroom Supply Assistance Program, etc.
From the bill: For charter schools operated by a not-for-profit entity, any unrestricted current or capital assets identified in the charter school’s annual audit may be used for other charter schools operated by the not-for-profit entity which are located outside of the originating charter school’s school district, but within this state, through an unforgivable loan that must be repaid within 5 years to the originating charter school by the receiving charter school.
SB 992, Compulsory School Attendance
Revising the required age for compulsory school attendance from 16 to 18 years of age; deleting a requirement that a student’s parent sign a declaration of intent to terminate school enrollment; deleting a requirement that the school district notify a student’s parent upon receipt of such declaration, etcwould raise the state’s compulsory age for school attendance – raise the cap by two years from 16 to 18. Link to Bill.
HB 1035 – UPDATE 5/1/23
The Senate heard HB1035 on Teacher Training and Conduct and they amended the teacher apprenticeship bill, SB244, onto it. The amended bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support and now heads back to the House for consideration.
HB 1069 Parental Rights
The bill expands existing parental authority over a child’s education by extending the existing prohibition on instruction relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through grade 3 to include prekindergarten through grade 8 and expressly stating that charter schools must comply with this requirement.
The bill provides requirements relating to titles & pronouns; revises provisions relating to instruction & materials for specified instruction relating to reproductive health; provides additional requirements for instruction regarding human sexuality; provides district school boards are responsible for materials used in classroom libraries; revises provisions relating to objections of certain materials & process related to such objections; revises school principal, school district & district school board duties & responsibilities relating to certain materials & processes.would restrict the way teachers and students can use preferred pronouns in schools. It would bar school employees from telling students their preferred pronouns if those pronouns “do not correspond to his or her sex” and prevent employees from asking students about their preferred pronouns. Link to Bill. Link to staff analysis.
Similar to SB 1320
HB 1223 Public PreK-12 Educational Institution and Instruction Requirements
Revises and prohibits specific policies regarding instruction on sexual orientation & gender identity in schools; prohibits use of certain titles and pronouns. Link to Bill.
HB 1259 Education Funding – UPDATE 5/1/23 – passed the House and now moves to the Senate.
Education Funding; Revises calculation methodology for distribution of specified revenue to eligible charter schools; provides school district requirements for distribution of capital outlay funds to charter schools; provides appropriation. APPROPRIATION: $213,453,885. Link to Bill. Companion Bill: SB 1328
SB 1320 – Child Protection in Public Schools
Defining the term “sex”; prohibiting an employee, contractor, or student of a public school from being required to refer to a person using personal titles or pronouns that do not correspond with that person’s sex. Link to Bill. Similar to HB 1069.
SB 1328: Charter School Capital Outlay Funding UPDATE 5/1/23: Bill awaiting consideration by the Senate.
Revising the form of a resolution proposing a school capital outlay surtax regarding the sharing of surtax revenues with charter schools; revising the manner of determining charter school capital outlay funding; revising the calculation methodologies to be used by the Department of Education in determining the allocation of state funds to charter schools, etc. Link to Bill. Companion Bill: HB 1259
SB 1348 – Private Schools
Revising requirements that private schools participating in certain educational scholarship programs must meet. Link to Bill.
SB 1386 – Florida School for Competitive Academics
Revising the components of the delivery of public education within the Florida Early Learning-20 education system to include the Florida School for Competitive Academics. Link to Bill.
SB 1424 – Student Outcomes
Revising the responsibilities of the Just Read, Florida! Office; providing that a charter school application must include certain reading instructional strategies; providing that district school board instructional materials must include certain reading instructional strategies; revising requirements for an individualized progress monitoring plan; requiring a school district to evaluate the students at the end of each grading period for a mathematics deficiency; revising training requirements for reading coaches, classroom teachers, and school administrators to include certain instructional strategies, etc. Link to Bill.
SB 1446 – Interstate Education Compacts
Creating the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact; providing requirements for the licensure of teachers in member states who hold specified licenses in other member states; providing requirements for licensed teachers who are also eligible military spouses; establishing the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact Commission; requiring courts and administrative agencies of member states to take judicial notice of the compact, commission rules, and certain information, etc. Link to Bill.
HB 1537 – Education
Revises provisions relating to graduation requirements, charter schools, school district staff, Year-round School Pilot Program, school grades, courses, dual enrollment, articulated acceleration mechanisms, assessments, professional learning for educators, professional development programs, Bright Futures Scholarship Program, & Commission for Independent Education. Also:
- provides clarifying language relating to admission and dismissal procedures for charter schools
- revising the core curricula for certain teacher preparation program
- revising the requirements for a person seeking an educator certification; revising criteria for the award of a temporary certificates
SB 1680 – Charter Schools
HB 7051 – Revises provisions relating to Office of Reimagining Education and Career UPDATE 5/1/23: on the House floor.
The companion bill, SB 240, which would create a $102 million workforce fund for career and technical education programs as well as incentives to expand apprenticeships, work-based learning and career certification pathways, PASSED the Senate and moves to the House for consideration. Link to HB 7051.
If you have any questions about education-related bills listed above or the FCSA legislative priorities, please contact our advocacy team. Click here to view current Florida Charter School Law.