As we have reported, Speaker Corcoran and President Negron have indicated that they had come to agreement on some major policy issues that would clear the way for these leaders to publish allocations for the Conference Committees to allow them to begin their work on resolving differences between the House and Senate budgets. However, as of 8:15 this evening, neither chamber has named members of the various Budget Conference Committees and no Conference Committee meetings have been noticed (EXCEPT for the Gaming Conference Committee which was named last week and has been meeting). In addition, during a press availability shortly after today’s Senate Session, President Negron confirmed that the Senate and House had reached general agreement on the House position to roll back the Required Local Effort millage rate but he offered no details as to whether, and to what extent, state funds would be used to replace this lost property tax revenue. In addition, he stated that the Senate had accepted the House funding position on the Best & Brightest Scholarships and the Schools of Hope initiative — which combine for a total of $400 million – but he provided no details as to how these programs would be structured (which is a significant issue since each chamber has proposed different ways to approach these programs). In response his comments today, FSBA President Tim Harris and FSBA Executive Director Andrea Messina have sent a letter to President Negron expressing support for the Senate’s budget position and requesting that the Senate maintain their position in the coming negotiations. We will continue to keep you informed of any new developments.
In the meantime, please click on the links below for our report on bills that were under consideration today and those that will be considered on Thursday.
[toggle title=”Today’s Happenings – April 26, 2017“]
In the Senate Session:
Bills on 3rd Reading
HB 849 – Concealed Weapons & Firearms on Private School Property by Combee – READ 3RD TIME; PASSED THE SENATE
provides that a person who is licensed to carry a concealed weapon or firearm under Florida law is not prohibited from carrying a concealed weapon or firearm on private school property during non-school hours, or during an event on that property that is not sanctioned by the school, if a religious institution is located on the property. [NOTE: This bill has already passed the House but was amended on 2nd Reading in the Senate. Thus, the bill will need to return to the House for approval of the amended version.]
HB 392 – High School Graduation Requirements/Financial Literacy by Hukill – READ 3RD TIME; AMENDED; PASSED THE SENATE
The bill creates the “Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Education Act” to specify financial literacy standards and instruction for students entering grade 9 in the 2017-2018 school year. Specifically, the bill revises the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards to establish requirements for financial literacy distinct from the existing financial literacy requirements specified under the economics curricular content within the standards for social studies. The bill also revises the requirements for a student to earn a standard high school diploma by:
- Establishing a separate one-half credit requirement in personal financial literacy;
- Deleting the requirement that the one-half credit in economics include financial literacy; and
- Reducing the number of required elective credits from eight to seven and one-half.
[NOTE: Today’s amendment renames the Act in honor of Senator Dorothy Hukill. This short summary reflects that change. The House companion bill – HB 955 – is similar, has passed all committees of reference, and is on the House Calendar on 2nd Reading.]
Bills on 2nd Reading
SB 438 – Out of School Suspension by Baxley – READ 2ND TIME; PLACED ON 3RD READING FOR 4/27/17
The bill revises parents’ rights and school districts’ duties regarding the suspension of public school students. Specifically, the bill:
- Grants parents the right to give public testimony at a district school board meeting during which the board reviews its out-of-school suspension rules;
- Requires a district school board to review, once every 3 years, its rules authorizing out-of-school suspension during a district school board meeting; and
- Specifies that a district school board’s rules authorizing out-of-school suspension expire if the board does not conduct its review of these rules in accordance with the law.
[NOTE: There is no House companion bill.]
In the House Session:
Bills on 3rd Reading
HB 7065 – Local Government Fiscal Transparency by Ways & Means – READ 3RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE
The bill creates a new section of law — the “Local Government Fiscal Transparency Act” – to promote the fiscal transparency of local governments, including school boards, in their use of public funds. The bill:
- Requires easy public access to local government governing boards’ voting records related to tax increases and issuance of tax-supported debt (phased in over 4 years). The bill also requires easy online access to property tax TRIM notices and a 4-year history of property tax rates and amounts at the parcel level (phased in over 3 years). In addition, a 4-year history of property tax rates and total revenue generated at the jurisdiction level must be provided on government websites.
- Requires additional public meetings and expands public notice requirements for local option tax increases, other than property taxes, and new long-term, tax-supported debt issuances. Public notices for proposed tax increases must contain information regarding the rate and total annual amount of revenue expected from a tax increase, the annual additional revenue expressed as a percent of annual general fund revenue, detailed explanation of intended uses of the levy, and an indication of whether or not the tax proceeds will be used to secure debt. Public notices for proposed new, long-term debt issuance must disclose the total lifetime costs of the debt, annual debt service, and effects of the new debt on a government’s debt affordability measures.
- Requires local governments to conduct and consider a debt affordability analysis prior to approving the issuance of new, long-term tax-supported debt. The analysis would consist, at a minimum, of calculating a debt affordability ratio for the most recent five years and at least two projected years to gauge the effects of the proposed new debt issuance on the government’s debt service to revenue profile. The debt affordability ratio is the annual debt service for outstanding tax-supported debt divided by total annual revenues available to pay debt service on outstanding debt.
- Requires the auditor to report whether or not the local government is in compliance with the provisions of the new “Local Government Fiscal Transparency Act” and the Auditor General must request evidence of corrective action from local governments found not to be in compliance with the Act. Local governments must provide evidence that corrective action has been initiated within 45 days and evidence of completion within 180 days of such request. The Auditor General must report to the Legislative Auditing Committee local governments that do not take corrective action.
- Revises the local government reporting requirements for economic development incentives. It requires each county and municipality to report to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research whether the incentive was provided directly to an individual business or by another entity on behalf of the local government and the source of local dollars, and any state or federal dollars obligated for the incentive. The bill also revises the classes of economic development incentives. It requires reporting on financial incentives; general assistance, services, and support; and business recruitment, retention, or expansion efforts.
[NOTE: There is no Senate companion bill.]
HB 139 – Local Tax Referenda by Ingoglia – READ 3RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE
The bill requires any referendum to levy a local government discretionary sales surtax, including a school infrastructure surtax, to be held during a general election or a primary election. Such a referendum shall be held
- At a primary election and requires the approval of at least 60% of the voters voting on the ballot question for passage if the sales surtax is not revenue neutral;
- At a primary election and requires the approval of a majority of the voters voting on the ballot question if the sales surtax is revenue neutral; or
- At a general election and requires the approval of a majority of the voters voting on the ballot question for passage.
The bill defines the term “revenue neutral” to mean the amount of revenue collected from the discretionary sales surtax shall be offset by a concurrent reduction in ad valorem taxes, discretionary sales surtax, or other taxes greater than or equal to the amount of revenue projected to be raised by the local government discretionary sales surtax in its first year of collection. A county or school district proposing to levy a revenue neutral sales surtax must publish, at least twice, a notice of its intent to levy a surtax. In addition, the bill provides that a county or school district which levies a revenue neutral sales surtax may not increase the tax concurrently reduced for 3 years. [NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 278 — is similar and has passed two of three committees of reference.]
HB 833 – Student Eligibility for Virtual Instruction by Sullivan – READ 3RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE
The bill:
- Removes the prior year in public school requirement and provides that all K-12 students, including home education and private school students, are eligible for both full-time and part-time virtual instruction options;
- Revises eligibility requirements for specified students to receive part-time instruction at the Florida Virtual School;
- Provides that the school district in which the student enrolls in the virtual charter school shall report the student for funding and the home school district shall not report the student for funding;
- Removes provisions requiring the Auditor General to conduct an operational audit of the Florida Virtual School;
- Removes passage of an online content assessment, by which the student demonstrates skills and competency in locating information and applying technology for instructional purposes, as an option to fulfill the online course requirement;
- Provides a student the option of taking either an online course or a blended learning course to satisfy the requirements for a standard high school diploma.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 692 — is similar but has not been heard in any of three committees of reference.]
HB 1391 – Home Education by Eisnaugle – READ 3RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE
The bill:
- Requires a parent’s notice of intent to provide home education to their child(ren) include the student’s full legal name and provides that the notice is prima facie evidence of the validity of the provided information;
- Authorizes school districts to provide a home education student access to career and technical courses and programs;
- Authorizes school districts to offer industry certifications, national assessments and statewide, standardized assessments to a home education student;
- Prohibits a district school superintendent from requiring evidence of a child’s age if the child meets regular attendance requirements by attending certain educational institutions or programs;
- Limits the documentation a school district can require from a home education student;
- Exempts a home education program student from the grade point average requirement for admission to a dual enrollment program if the student meets the minimum score on a college placement test;
- Exempts dual enrollment students from paying postsecondary institution technology fees and explicitly exempts public school, private school or home education dual enrollment students from payment of registration, tuition, technology and laboratory fees; and
- Clarifies that private school and a home education program students are not required to reimburse tuition for dual enrollment.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 1556 — is similar but has not been heard in any of three committees of reference.]
HB 1281 – Department of Management Services by Albritton – READ 3RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE
The bill creates the Statewide Procurement Efficiency Task Force, which includes a school board member, for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness and value of state and local procurement laws and policies to the taxpayers of the state and determining where inconsistencies in such laws and policies exist. The bill requires the task force to submit a final report to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives by July 1, 2018. Such report must, at a minimum, include recommendations for consideration by the Legislature to promote procurement efficiency, streamline procurement policies, establish best management practices, and encourage increased use of state term contracts. The bill provides that the task force terminates on December 31, 2018. [NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 1540 — is comparable and has passed two of three committees of reference.]
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[toggle title=”Coming Up Tomorrow – April 27, 2017“]
Please note that all of the meetings listed below may be viewed via live webcast on the Florida Channel. For real-time updates on these meetings and other legislative activities, please click HERE to access our Twitter feed.
The Senate will be in Session (10:00 am-6:00 pm; Senate Chamber) to consider the following items and others:
Bills on 3rd Reading
SB 438 – Out of School Suspension by Baxley
The bill revises parents’ rights and school districts’ duties regarding the suspension of public school students. Specifically, the bill:
- Grants parents the right to give public testimony at a district school board meeting during which the board reviews its out-of-school suspension rules;
- Requires a district school board to review, once every 3 years, its rules authorizing out-of-school suspension during a district school board meeting; and
- Specifies that a district school board’s rules authorizing out-of-school suspension expire if the board does not conduct its review of these rules in accordance with the law.
[NOTE: There is no House companion bill.]
Bills on 2nd Reading
SB 914 – Public Meetings by Baxley
The bill creates a new statutory provisions to codify judicial interpretation and application of the terms: de facto meeting, discussion, meeting, official act, and public business. The bill specifies that members of a board may participate in fact-finding exercises or excursion to research public business, and may participate in meetings with a member of the Legislature if:
- The board provides reasonable notice;
- A vote, official act, or an agreement regarding a future action does not occur;
- There is no discussion of public business that occurs; and
- There are appropriate records, minutes, audio recordings, or video recordings made and retained as a public record.
In addition, the bill provides that, if there is a gathering of two or more board members where no official acts are taken and no public business is discussed, then no public notice or access is required. [NOTE: The House companion bill – HB 919 – is identical but has not been heard in any of three committees of reference.]
SB 1622 – School Bus Safety by Passidomo
The bill creates the “Cameron Mayhew Act” to require a driver who illegally passes a stopped school bus resulting in death or serious bodily injury of another person to:
- Serve 120 community service hours in a trauma center or hospital.
- Participate in a victim’s impact panel or attend a Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) approved driver improvement course that relates to the rights of vulnerable road users relative to vehicles on the roadway.
The bill also imposes a $1,500 fine, a 1-year driver license suspension, and two additional points, for a total of 6 points added to a person’s driver license. [NOTE: The House companion bill – HB 1239 – is identical, has passed all committees of reference, and is on the House Special Order Calendar for 4/27/17 (see below).]
SB 534 – Public Works Projects by Perry
The bill prohibits the state and its political subdivisions that contract for public works projects from imposing restrictive conditions on certain contractors, subcontractors, or material suppliers or carriers, except as otherwise required by federal or state law. Specifically, the state or political subdivision that contracts for a public works project may not require that a contractor, subcontractor, or material supplier or carrier engaged in the project:
- Pay employees a predetermined amount of wages or prescribe any wage rate;
- Provide employees a specified type, amount, or rate of employee benefits;
- Control, limit, or expand staffing; or
- Recruit, train, or hire employees from a designated, restricted, or single source.
The bill specifies that public works projects include only those projects for which 50% or more of the cost will be paid from state-appropriated funds. In addition, the bill prohibits the state or a political subdivision from restricting a qualified contractor, subcontractor, or material supplier or carrier from submitting a bid on any public works project or being awarded any contract, subcontract, material order, or carrying order. However, the prohibition does not apply to discriminatory vendors or those that have committed a public entity crime. [NOTE: The House companion bill – HB 599 – is identical, has passed all committees of reference, and has passed the House.]
The House will be in Session (10:30 am-completion) to consider the following items and others:
Bills on 2nd Reading
HB 1239 – School Bus Safety by Eagle
The bill creates the Cameron Mayhew Act, providing that in addition to any other civil, criminal, or administrative penalty, a person who fails to stop for a school bus causing or resulting in the serious bodily injury or death of another person is required to:
- Serve 120 hours of community service in a trauma center or hospital.
- Participate in a victim’s impact panel session in a judicial circuit or attend a driver improvement course approved by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles relating to the rights of vulnerable road users relative to vehicles on the roadway.
The bill provides for a fine of $1,500 and a one-year driver license suspension for failing to stop for a school bus resulting in the serious bodily injury or death of another. [NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 1622 — is similar, has passed all committees of reference, and is on the Senate Special Order Calendar for 4/27/17 (see above).]
HB 549 – Education / Assessments by Fine
The bill adds to and revises several provisions relating to assessments. The bill:
- Provides that the grade 3 statewide, standardized ELA assessment, the writing portion of the statewide, standardized ELA assessments, and any statewide, standardized assessment delivered in a paper-based format must be administered no earlier than April 1 each year within a 2-week assessment window;
- Provides that any other statewide, standardized assessment that is delivered in a computer-based format must be administered within a 4-week assessment window that opens no earlier than May 1 each year and requires school districts to administer such assessments no earlier than 4 weeks before the last day of school for the district.
- Requires that assessment results for the grade 3 statewide, standardized ELA assessment be made available no later than May 31 and revises the date by which all other statewide assessment results must be made available no later than June 30 (rather than the week of June 8);
- Requires the commissioner to post the uniform assessment calendar to the DOE website in January (rather than August) of each year;
- Requires that any new contract for the statewide, standardized ELA and mathematics assessments entered into after July 1, 2017 provides for these assessment to be administered quarterly for students who have been identified through competency-based education as having mastered the content and who are prepared to take the applicable assessment in accordance with the Competency-Based Education Pilot Program;
- Requires that all statewide, standardized assessments, including EOC assessments, must be administered in a computer-based format EXCEPT that, beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, the statewide, standardized ELA and mathematics assessments for grades 3 through 6 must be administered in a paper-based format only;
- Requires that the results of the statewide, standardized ELA and mathematics assessments, including retakes, be reported in an “easy-to read and understandable” format and delivered in time to provide useful, actionable information to students, parents, and to each student’s current teacher and the student’s teacher of record for the subsequent school year;
- Requires each school district to provide the report within 1 week after receiving the results from the DOE and specifies that the report must include, at a minimum:
- a clear explanation of the student’s performance on the applicable assessments;
- information identifying the student’s areas of strength and areas in need of improvement;
- specific actions that may be taken, and the available resources that may be used, by the student’s parent to assist the student based on his or her areas of strength and areas in need of improvement;
- longitudinal information, if available, on the student’s progress in each subject area based on previous statewide, standardized assessment data;
- comparative information showing the student’s score compared to other students in the school district, in the state or, if available, in other states; and
- predictive information, if available, showing the linkage between the scores attained by the student on the statewide, standardized assessments and the scores he or she may potentially attain on nationally recognized college entrance examinations;
- Requires the commissioner to contract for an independent study to determine whether the SAT and ACT may be administered in lieu of the grade 10 statewide, standardized ELA assessment and the Algebra I EOC assessment consistent with the provisions of ESSA and requires the commissioner to submit a report with the results of the review and any recommendations to the Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the State Board of Education by January 1, 2018.
In addition, the bill requires the commissioner, beginning with the 2019-2020 school year and every 3 years thereafter, to publish each statewide, standardized assessment and statewide EOC assessment on the DOE’s website, excluding retake and alternate assessments, administered in the most recent school year. The commissioner is to determine the schedule for publishing assessments during the 3-year period, but the initial publication must occur no later than June 30, 2020, and must include the grade 3 ELA and mathematics assessments, the grade 10 ELA assessment, and the Algebra I EOC assessment. DOE must publish materials on its website to help the public interpret the published assessment information. Because test items cannot be repeated for purposes of assessment validity, the DOE would be required to procure additional test items to replace the items it has authority to publish. This would require renegotiation of current assessment contracts for the development of test items owned by the DOE. Thereafter, the DOE would be required to purchase sufficient test items to replace assessments that are published in accordance with the bill. The bill provides an appropriation to cover the costs associated with these publication provisions.
The bill requires that the student learning growth formula approved by the commissioner be developed by a third party independent of the entity that administers the statewide, standardized assessments. The third party developer must verify the suitability of statewide assessment results for annual learning growth measures. The commissioner must provide schools access to individual student learning growth data in a user-friendly format that enables teachers to understand and evaluate the data and school administrators to improve instruction, evaluate programs, allocate resources, plan professional development, and communicate with stakeholders. [NOTE: There is no direct Senate companion bill, but there are several House and Senate bills that are comparable to some aspects of this bill, including SB 906, SB 926, SB 964, HB 773, and HB 1249. Please see our FSBA Quick Notes – Assessments & Accountability for information on key provisions in each of these bills.]
HB 371 — Assistive Technology Devices by Ausley
The bill revises provisions related to the use of an assistive technology device by students with disabilities by:
- Clarifying that access to and use of the assistive technology device is essential for a student moving from school to home and community;
- Specifying an individual work plan as one of the plans that may serve as the basis for issuing an assistive technology device to a student; and
- Requiring the Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice, within the Florida Department of Education, to enter into interagency agreements with specified agencies, as appropriate, for the transaction of assistive technology devices.
[NOTE: The Senate companion – SB 772 – is similar and has passed two of three committees of reference.]
HB 525 – High School Graduation Requirements by Silvers
The bill allows a student to use credit earned upon completion of a registered apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship program registered with the Department of Education to satisfy certain high school credit requirements for graduation with a standard diploma. Specifically, the bill:
- Authorizes the use of credit earned upon completion of a registered apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship program to satisfy up to one credit in fine or performing arts, speech and debate, or practical arts; or electives.
- Requires the State Board of Education to approve and identify in the Course Code Directory the registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs from which a student may use earned credit to satisfy such course credit requirements.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 978 – is similar and has passed one of three committees of reference.]
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