Foundation for Florida’s Future applauds signing of House Bills 1105, 1255 

Patricia Levesque, Executive Director of the Foundation for Florida’s Future, applauds Gov. DeSantis signing House Bills 1105 and 1255, which include multiple Foundation priorities this legislative session. 

“These bills include student-centered policy priorities that will improve education in Florida and address many issues, including the challenges charter and private schools face as they seek to serve students across the state. 

“The Foundation is particularly pleased that lawmakers expanded the state’s existing distraction-free learning law, ensuring more than 1.8 million students will enter school in the fall free from cell phone distractions. 

“We applaud Gov. DeSantis for signing these policies into law and thank Reps. Jennifer Canady, Demi Busatta, Jennifer Kincart-Jonsson, Dana Trabulsy and Sens. Danny Burgess and Alexis Calatayud for their work on these priorities” 

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HB 1105 

• Expands development options for private schools located in certain counties. 
• Expands the state’s existing distraction-free learning law to be bell-to-bell in grades K-8 and a pilot program with reported data for high schools in 6 school districts. 
• Requires the Department of Education to work with the Center for Students with Unique Abilities to create a workforce credential program for students with Autism. 
• Improves the charter school conversion process by requiring only a favorable vote of 50% of parents with children in the school to initiate a conversion. 
• Allows a municipality to apply to convert a public school to a “job engine” charter school that must offer career and technical education.  
• Ensures charter schools can access the state’s workforce training grant program for high schools that offer workforce training programs tied to high-value credentials. 
• Allows colleges and universities to authorize charter schools under the Schools of Hope program. 

HB 1255 

• Requires districts to report in their reading plans how they will prioritize the placement of highly effective teachers in grades K-2. 
• Improves reading by intervention by requiring that such interventions be provided by instructional personnel with a literacy microcredential or an endorsement in reading. 
• Expands financial literacy education by requiring that students also be informed about the  full cost of postsecondary education and access to scholarships, grants, and student loans. 
• Improves charter schools by: 
  • Prohibiting a local governing body from imposing or enforcing any building or operational requirement that would impact student capacity or operational hours; 
  • Prohibiting the adoption of any development or zoning requirement that is not also uniformly imposed or enforced on public schools and prohibiting any requirement or restriction that would not be required for a public or private school at a location where a public or private school previously operated; 
  • Requires swift approval of a charter school development application if the charter school meets the requirements of law.