2024 Florida Legislative Highlights | Week of January 8-12, 2024 

Senate Passes Anti-Accountability and Choice Bills 

The Senate unanimously passed a package of bills that would reduce accountability, lower student expectations and reduce the amount of federal funds for public charter schools. Two of the most concerning provisions would (1) eliminate the requirement that students pass the grade 10 English-language arts and Algebra I end-of-course assessment to receive a diploma; and (2) eliminate safeguards in place that ensure public charter schools get access to Title I funds they are owed. 

• SB 7000, sponsored by Sen. Alexis Calatayud, contains provisions related to personnel. Some positive  provisions in the bill include: 

1. Expands access to Florida’s teacher apprenticeship program by allowing individuals with a high school degree and enrolled in a postsecondary program to become a teacher apprentice, so long as they achieve and maintain a 2.5 GPA or higher.  
2. Creates a more workable  requirement for a mentor teacher to participate, by requiring seven years of experience to five years of experience.  
3. Ensures that a collective bargaining agreement cannot preclude a school board from carrying out certain duties and practices.  

• SB 7002, sponsored by Sen. Travis Hutson, contains provisions related to facilities and finance. Among these provisions, the bill harms charter schools that serve low-income students by lowering the amount of Title I funding they receive by eliminating the cap on the amount of funds a school district can withhold from a charter school for services provided under Title I.. The bill also removes the requirement that school districts provide surplus property to charter schools. 
• SB 7004, sponsored by Sen. Corey Simon, contains provisions related to assessments, accountability and choice. The bill removes the requirement that a student pass the 10th-grade English Language Arts and Algebra I end-of-course assessments to receive a standard high school diploma. 

“Maintaining Florida’s system of high expectations, clear accountability and robust choice is as important to our future as anything. We’ve spent two decades establishing, maintaining and building upon these ideals.

“Now is not the time for lawmakers to get weak-kneed on policies that have played key roles in contributing to two decades of educational progress.”

House Bill 1: Protecting Florida Students from Social Media Harm 

In a nod to the priority of the legislation, and at the direction of Speaker Paul Renner, House Reform and Regulations Committee Chairman Tyler Sirois and Rep. Fiona McFarland filed and passed out of the House Reform and Regulations Committee House Bill 1, which will address the mental health and learning challenges that social media has on students.  

Specifically, HB 1: 

• Bans an individual under 16 from establishing an account on a social media platform; 
• Empowers parents of those 16 years old and younger to submit a termination request that their child’s existing social media account be closed;  
• Requires social media companies to provide users under the age of 18 with accessible information about the harms of using social media platforms at a young age and provide local resources for support; and 
• Allows a parent to bring a suit against a social media company that fails to comply with the requirements of the law. 

“The Foundation is an education-focused organization, but we’ve spent the last year looking at data that suggests a closer examination of policies and regulations of social media is necessary to mitigate what is now very clear evidence suggesting there are incredible harms both to youth mental health and to classroom learning with unrestricted access children have to social media platforms and to their cell phones.”

School Choice Cleanup Moves Forward 

Building on the monumental success of 2023, which delivered universal school choice for Florida families, Rep. Josie Tomkow filed HB 1403 containing enhancements to the programs.  

Specifically, HB 1403: 

• Merges the Hope Scholarship and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship;  
• Clarifies allowable uses for the purchase of instructional materials for non-Unique Abilities families; 
• Increases the annual growth for the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program for Students with Unique Abilities, from three percent to five percent, with an opportunity to unlock an additional one percent;  
• Expands eligibility to military families that receive permanent change-of-station orders or whose home address, at the time of renewal, is Florida; 
• Prescribes specified application windows and timelines for families to accept or decline scholarships; 
• Provides that the Center for Students with Unique Abilities at the University of Central Florida will establish a purchasing guideline for participants of the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities;  
• Specifies timelines for Scholarship Funding Organizations to release payments for full-time private school to within seven business days of parent and school approval; 
• Expands the allowable use of funds for Unique Abilities students to participate in a pre-kindergarten program offered by an eligible private school; 
• Ensures public school students receiving a New Worlds Reading Scholarship can access existing transportation scholarships; and 
• Requires students participating in the personalized education program to have regular and direct contact with teachers at a physical private school two days per week.

House Unveils Public School Deregulation Bills 

The House unveiled and took first votes on their version of public school deregulation in the form of HB 7025 and HB 7039. Specifically, HB 7025 contains much of the recommendations put forward by the Department of Education for relief on various reporting requirements and additional district-level flexibilities. HB 7039 provides for additional relief and deregulation, including collective bargaining relief and further flexibility for the Teacher Apprenticeship Program, both of which are priorities for the Foundation.

Foundation for Florida’s Future 2024 Legislative Priorities 

Ahead of the start of Session earlier this week, the Foundation for Florida’s Future released its list of 2024 legislative priorities. You can find an overview and the full list of priorities here.