It was another busy week in the Florida Legislature as we are seeing more bills moving through the process as they
are being put on the agenda to be heard in committees.
HERE you will find the legislative bill tracker supplied to us by our team at GrayRobinson. All of the bills we are
tracking are listed on the report in numerical order. A few of the bills to highlight:
- SB 1048 Student Assessments by Sen. Diaz was heard in the Senate Education Appropriations Committee
this week. While questions were asked and concerns brought up around the total time spent on testing and
districts ability to have the needed technology for the proposed progress monitoring, the bill passed out of
committee unanimously. The companion bill, HB 1193 by Rep. Plasencia has yet to be heard in committee. - HB 1421 School Safety by Rep. Hawkins was heard in its first committee of reference. This would implement
the most recent recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Safety Commission including requiring
certain law enforcement to be physically present for school safety drills as well as requiring the
Commissioner of Education to oversee and ensure compliance with requirements relating to school safety
and security. It passed out of committee 12-3. The companion bill, SB 802 by Sen. Gruters was scheduled
to be heard in Senate Education Appropriations but was temporarily postponed. - SB 706 School Concurrency by Sen. Perry was heard in its first committee this week. As filed, the bill would
have changed school concurrency to district wide, however, during committee, an amendment was adopted
which removes the district wide language out of the bill. This will allow our districts to continue to consider
concurrency as they currently do. The bill, with the adopted amendment, now moves to the Senate
Education Committee. - SB 1300 District School Boards by Sen. Gruters was amended in the Senate Education Committee to
contain language around the adoption of instructional materials for school libraries, media centers, and
classroom libraries as well as adjust school board member salaries to be the same as legislator salaries.
This bill passed out of committee 6-3 along party lines. However Sen. Hutson did express concerns around
changing school board member salaries. HB 1467 by Rep. Garrison which is similar will be heard in the
House Appropriations Committee this week.
