Florida School Boards Association
A longtime Florida Department of Law Enforcement officer has been named the director of the newly created Office of Safe Schools, the state announced Tuesday evening. Damien Kelly has been an FDLE officer since 2005, most recently as a public corruption inspector, during which Kelly “became an expert in firearms certification and proficiency,” according to…
Nearly a decade after some Florida parents first argued the state Legislature does not adequately fund public education as the constitution requires, the Florida Supreme Court has agreed to take up the question. In a 4-1 ruling issued late Monday, the court accepted jurisdiction of the Citizens for Strong Schools case. It gave the plaintiffs until May…
In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting and the state’s new law that requires armed security on every campus, some superintendents worry districts will now be competing for the same personnel. For the 2016-2017 school year, Florida’s Department of Education counted about 1,500 officers. But there’s more than twice as many public schools — about…
Forty-seven cents. That amount — less than the cost of a postage stamp — is how much Florida lawmakers increased general education funding per student for the coming year. School district officials instantly declared the budget a crisis, and pleaded with lawmakers (unsuccessfully) for a special session to reshuffle the dollars. Otherwise, they insisted, public…
On the day after the Parkland school shooting, children across Florida were brought to hospitals by police or other authorities to undergo emergency mental health exams — an unusually high number that kept climbing in the days that followed. On Feb. 27, about two weeks after the Valentine’s Day massacre, 195 children across Florida were…
The Constitution Revision Commission concluded its agenda last week having squandered most of its rare and precious opportunity. It deserves a harsh judgment from the public in November. The eight amendments it voted to put on the ballot are a mishmash of the good, the bad, and the unnecessary, mostly packaged in ways that deny…
The U.S. Department of Education will move forward with grants to schools in Florida and other states that took in children evacuees from Hurricanes Irma and Maria and then struggled with unexpected costs, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy‘s office announced Tuesday. Under legislation Congress pushed through and approved in February, with Murphy’s backing, the department will…
The Florida Department of Education sent in its revised federal school accountability plan Monday, months after the U.S. Education department said multiple revisions were needed. In its updated version, the state said it had filed for a waiver of certain testing rules for middle school students in science and math, so they do not have to…
n Thursday, April 26, an estimated 37 million adults will bring children to work — part of a quarter-century tradition known as Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. For us, the celebration of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is much more than a break from school or a chance for…
The Florida Constitution Revision Commission has voted to approve ballot language for changes to Article IX of our constitution, relating to public, K-12 education. Duval voters have good reasons to reject the proposal. Read More