Florida Department of Education prepares rules to govern scholarships for bullied students

Families of children who have been bullied or harassed in a Florida public school soon will have access to state scholarships to attend private schools instead.  But first, the State Board of Education must set the rules for how the controversial “Hope Scholarship” program will operate.  The Department of Education has issued a draft proposal…

Why won’t local governments fund extra school security? Look to a memo

It’s not a secret: Florida’s school districts are struggling to find enough money to place armed security on each campus, as now required by law.  What is new lately is many local governments have begun saying they will not help out with their law enforcement departments. In the past few days, both the Pinellas and…

In Florida, school districts take different safety paths

Unwilling to turn school staff into gun-packing “guardians,” some officials across Florida are turning to a controversial alternative to meet the demands of a state law approved after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.The Duval County School Board has became the second in two weeks to approve hiring and training dozens of new,…

State law enforcement officer tapped to direct new Office of Safe Schools

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…

Florida school districts and counties work to make campus security a reality

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…

After Parkland, numbers of children hospitalized for mental health care jumped

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…

Feds to provide grants to schools enrolling hurricane evacuees

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…

FSBA Session Spotlight — April 3, 2018

In a series of floor sessions in March, the full Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) trimmed down its original list of proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution from more than 100 to 24 – 5 of which are of primary interest to school boards.  The proposals have now been referred to the CRC Style & Drafting…

The new struggle for Florida schools: Paying for education — and security

Florida school district leaders are faced with a school security dilemma.  Lawmakers are requiring them to add armed safety officers or “guardians” to every elementary, middle and high school campus, and they set aside $170 million for the task. But that won’t come close to projected costs.  The gap — as little as $500,000 in…