Florida Legislative Highlights | Final Week: March 4-8, 2024

Florida Legislature Adjourns Sine Die

Florida’s 2024 legislative session adjourned Friday, March 8, with the ceremonial dropping of the handkerchief, officially declaring legislative business concluded. For the second straight year, the legislature adjourned on time, delivering a budget and policies that will meaningfully impact Florida’s education landscape.

Florida Budget

Policymakers negotiated a balanced budget, which includes funding for many of the Foundation for Florida’s Future’s 2024 priorities:

• $8,958.59 per pupil (increase of $291) – K-12 FTE
• $200 million – School Recognition Funds
• $1.2 billion (increase of $200 million) – Teacher Salary Increase
• $230 million (increase of $17.3 million) – Fixed Capital Outlay – Charter Schools
• $6 million (increase of $6 million) – Schools of Hope
• $20 million (increase of $16 million) – New Worlds Scholarship Accounts
• $20 million – Industry Certification Incentives
• $100 million – Workforce Capitalization Incentive Grants
• $1 million – Online Portal for Students/Parents to Choose Best Educational Option (back of bill revert and reappropriate unused funds)
• $14 million – Public School Transportation Stipend
• $10 million – Computer Science Certifications & Bonuses
• $290 million (increase of $40 million) – Safe Schools
• $18 million – Dual Enrollment Scholarship
• NEW: $18.4 million – New Worlds Microcredentials in Reading and Math
• NEW: $30 million – New Worlds Tutoring Program
• NEW: $7 million – GATE Scholarships
• NEW: $1 million – GATE Incentives
• NEW: $4 million – GATE Initial Costs
• NEW: $2 million – Artificial Intelligence Grant Program
• NEW: $5 million – Private School Safety Security Assessment Grant Program

Public School Deregulation

With a final vote of the Senate, the legislature approved public school deregulation. This was the most prominent education issue this session. The Foundation played significant defense on the package of bills to ensure student expectations remain high and charter schools maintain access to critical federal funding. The final amended bills, SB 7002 and SB 7004, include provisions to:

• Improve the Teacher Apprenticeship Program by aligning GPA requirements to that of other professional certification programs;
• Incorporate the Florida Department of Education recommendations for deregulation, including eliminating certain reporting requirements no longer necessary due to changes in statute. These reports include the Fine Arts Report, Charter Technical Career Centers Report and the Academically High Performing School District Report;
• Expand parental notification and supports for students in K-2 with reading deficiencies; and
• Preclude collective bargaining processes from blocking certain school district practices and decision-making, such as providing incentives for effective and highly effective teachers, implementing school safety plans and corresponding with parents, teachers and community members.

Social Media Protections

The Speaker’s signature initiative this year—establishing regulations around social media and harmful content to minors—received final votes and is headed to Gov. DeSantis. The amended bill, HB 3, strikes a balance, called for by the Governor, between regulation and parental empowerment. The bill is anticipated to face a constitutional challenge, although its sponsors, Reps. Tyler Sirois, Fiona McFarland and Michele Raynor and Sen. Erin Grall, believe it will be upheld.

HB 3:

• Bans users under 14 from establishing accounts on addictive social media platforms defined in the bill;
• Requires parental consent for users aged 14 and 15 from establishing accounts on addictive social media platforms defined in the bill;
• Bans users under the age of 18 from accessing material deemed harmful to minors; and
• Establishes a cause of action to be brought by the Department of Legal Affairs against companies that violate the provisions of the law, with opportunity for awarding financial damages, reasonable court costs and attorneys fees.

“Florida has a long history of putting reasonable guardrails in place to protect children and teens. I’m proud that our state is poised to do the same with social media.”

School Choice Expansion

Building on 2023’s universal school choice bill, this year’s HB 1403 received final votes in an amended form. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Josie Tomkow and Sen. Corey Simon, expands access to school choice programs, cleans up reporting and compliance and makes important changes to virtual education providers. Specifically, HB 1403:

• Increases annual cap growth from 3% to 5%, with an opportunity to unlock an additional 1% for the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities;
• Merges the Hope Scholarship and Florida Tax Credit Scholarship programs;
• Expands opportunities for military families to access the scholarship programs;
• Deletes the requirement that virtual instruction program providers be nonsectarian;
• Gives authority to the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities to develop purchasing guidelines for families using the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities; and
• Specifies application windows and payment schedules.

Career and Technical Education Boost

Several bills passed during the final week that boost the state’s career and technical education programming:

• HB 917, sponsored by Rep. John Snyder and Sen. Corey Simon, expands math pathways in high school aligned to postsecondary education and career programming and allows districts to provide alternatives to career fairs. The bill also directs the state’s workforce agencies to develop a report that examines the state of career and technical education (CTE) offered by local districts and also to determine the alignment of program offerings and outcomes to industry demand and the state’s overall economic needs.
• SB 1688, sponsored by Sen. Rosalind Osgood and Rep. Lisa Dunkley, provides for three improvements: 1) requires the Department of Education to collect student achievement and performance data in industry-certified career education programs and career-themed courses as part of the annual review required under the Florida Career and Professional Education Act; 2) requires school districts to inform middle school students and parents prior to course selection about the career and professional academies or career-themed courses available within the school district; and 3) requires that strategic plans for expanding career and technical education opportunities include strategies for informing and promoting CTE opportunities to students, parents and community stakeholders.
• SB 7032, sponsored by Sen. Erin Grall and Rep. Lauren Melo, creates an alternative graduation program (GATE) that provides students ages 16–21 who have dropped out of school an opportunity to obtain postsecondary course credits at no cost while earning their high school diploma or equivalent. 

Expansion of Math and Reading Supports

HB 1361, sponsored by Rep. John Temple and Sen. Clay Yarborough, received final votes with an important late-filed amendment. The bill expands upon the success of the New Worlds Scholarship program and New Worlds Reading Initiative by expanding the scope to include students identified with math deficiencies and giving authority to the University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning to establish microcredentials to support teachers. The legislation also creates and funds a new artificial intelligence grant program for school districts. Specifically, HB 1361:

• Expands the New Worlds Reading Scholarship to include Voluntary Prekindergarten students and expands the program’s scope to include math deficiencies;
• Directs the University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning to develop strategies to improve literacy and math and to create professional learning opportunities for educators, including awarding microcredentials;
• Creates New Worlds Tutoring program to support students with reading or math deficiencies by providing grants to districts to provide tutoring, in-person and virtual, as well as professional learning and supports to teachers; and
• Creates and funds ($2 million in recurring funds) an artificial intelligence (AI) grant program to provide personalized tutoring and professional learning for students and teachers. Districts can apply to use funds for educational AI platforms, such as Khanmigo, to buy licenses for students and teachers.

Classical Charter Schools

As part of the Department of Education’s legislative initiative, HB 1285, classical charter schools received a policy boost from sponsors Rep. Jennifer Canady and Sen. Danny Burgess. Specifically, HB 1285 creates a new classical education certification to be used exclusively at classical schools and establishes a new charter school enrollment preference for students transferring from another classical school.