Florida School Boards Association
Thousands of children of legal immigrants will be closer to obtaining subsidized health insurance this summer, after the Legislature passed a long-debated expansion of the state’s KidCare program. Until this year, children of legal immigrants were technically eligible for KidCare — the low-cost federal-state health insurance program — but had to wait five years to…
TALLAHASSEE — In a near-unanimous vote, the House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that would mandate recess in elementary schools. Before the chamber’s floor session, advocates from around the state who have dubbed themselves “recess moms” held a press conference alongside Democratic lawmakers to push for the legislation, which appears dead in the…
The Florida House has approved several education bills changing everything from the way students can transfer to how how quickly they can advance in school. But some of those proposals face opposition in the Senate when they get there. Democratic Representative Steve Geller sums up his party’s sentiment about the education bills. “It’s a pattern…
MIAMI (AP) — Florida’s history of fighting off mosquito-borne outbreaks puts the state in perhaps better position than most when it comes to the Zika virus. In 2014, chikungunya, a virus spread by the same species of mosquito as Zika, infected a million people in the Caribbean. While 452 travel-related cases were documented in Florida…
With Florida leading the nation in new HIV infections, Democratic lawmakers say now more than ever the Legislature should do away with what’s commonly referred to as “abstinence-only” sex education in the state’s 4,300 public schools. Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, and Rep. Reggie Fullwood, D-Jacksonville, are the leading sponsors of what they’ve dubbed the “Florida Healthy Adolescence Act” (SB…
TALLAHASSEE — National and state advocates are pushing new legislation that would require suicide prevention training for public school teachers after a similar law was repealed as part of Gov. Rick Scott’s 2011 budget cuts. This week, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Florida Suicide Prevention Coalition plan to hold a vigil at…
For the 700,000 students in Miami-Dade and Broward public schools, it was just another day in class. For school leaders, it was a day of decisions and vigilance. South Florida schools opened their doors Thursday morning despite threats — deemed “less than credible” — that had been sent in emails similar to ones sent to…
TALLAHASSEE — A Senate panel Thursday approved a measure aimed at improving and expanding the Early Steps program, which serves infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and delays. The Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee backed the bill, part of a series of efforts by Senate President Andy Gardiner to help people with what…
The violent arrest of a South Carolina high school student in class last month has triggered new scrutiny of the nation’s school resource officers, whose numbers have increased in recent decades alongside concerns about school safety and mass shootings. There are now more than 43,000 school resource officers and other sworn police officers, and an…
TALLAHASSEE – An appeals court ruled today that state universities are allowed to ban students from having guns in their dorm rooms. The ruling comes at a critical time: The Republican-controlled Legislature is already considering bills that would allow concealed permit owners to bring their guns onto campus. In a lengthy ruling, The 1st District…