June 6, 2019 – According to our member schools, some districts are requiring charter schools to work exclusively with their local sheriff’s department to comply with the Safe Schools mandate, SB 7030. The updated Safe Schools legislation — approved during the 2019 legislative session amended s. 1006.12, F.S. — expands the categories of individuals who may serve as a school guardian: A school district or charter school employee who volunteers to serve as guardian in addition to the employee’s official job duties; A school district or charte school employee hired for the specific purpose of serving as a guardian; or A contract employee working at the school district or charter school through a contract with a private security firm.
According to the bill, “Contract employees may receive school guardian training through a participating sheriff’s office contingent upon defined financial or service obligations by the private security agency enumerate in the contract between the school district or charter school governing board and private security agency.”
A charter school in a “school district that has not voted, or has declined, to implement a guardian program may request the sheriff in the county to establish a guardian program for the purpose of training the charter school employees. If the county sheriff denies the request, the charter school governing board may contract with a sheriff that has established a guardian program to provide such training.”
The bill also specifies that:
- Sheriffs are required “to assist district school boards and charter school governing boards with compliance.” See letter from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office: palm beach sheriff letter_Safe Schools_June 2019
- Charter school governing boards “notify the superintendent or district school safety specialist and the sheriff in the county before training is executed.”
- District school boards are required to “collaborate with charter school governing boards to facilitate access to all safe-school officer options.”
- An individual may serve as a school guardian if he or she is appointed by the district school superintendent or charter school principal.
- All schools must adopt an active assailant response plan. “By October 1, 2019, and annually thereafter, each district school board and charter school principal shall certify that all school personnel have received annual training on the procedures contained in the active assailant response plan.”
- School districts must develop Mental Health Assistance Allocation plans that outline the local program and planned expenditures. This plan must include all district schools, including charter schools- unless the charter school elects to submit a plan independently from teh school distict.
- “If a district school board, through its adopted policies, procedures, or actions, denies a charter school access to any safe-school officer options” pursuant to sections outlined in the updated statute, “the school district must assign a school resource officer or school safety officer to the charter school. The charter school’s share of the costs of the school resource officer or school safety officer “may not exceed teh safe school allocation fund provided to the charter school pursuant to s.1011.62 (15) and shall be retained by the school district.”
More information about meeting the Safe Schools mandate:
Contact a FCSA team member if you need our assistance connecting with a security firm that’s working with sheriff’s offices and charter schools.
Click here to access the updated Safe Schools law.
DOE Letter on Compliance 5 31 19to Superintendents.
On February 13, 2019, Governor DeSantis signed Executive Order 19-45, entitled “Ensuring the Safety of Our Children in Our Schools,” which, in part, requires the Florida Department of Education to develop best practices for school hardening and harm mitigation by July 1, 2019. DOE Letter on Best Practices 5 31 19serves to provide information on recommendations in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission Initial Report that can be implemented immediately.