- Today, both chambers were engaged in floor sessions to move bills forward through the legislative process. The Senate did not consider any education related bills, but the House considered several, including bills relating to local government ethics, impact fees, and early learning, Please click on the first link below for our report on the outcome of consideration of these and other bills. Tomorrow, the Senate has scheduled a meeting of the Rules Committee to set the stage for several bills to move forward for floor consideration. In addition, both chambers will hold floor sessions. Of particular interest, the Senate will be considering its Public Safety bills on 2nd Reading. Please click on the second link below for a preview of these and other bills that will be considered. We have posted a comparison of the current House and Senate versions of these bills in the “2018 Education Legislation Materials” file on our 2018 Legislative Session page (click HERE to access it directly).
In the budget conference process today, the Education PreK-12 Budget Conference Committee held its first meeting this evening at which the Senate made its first offer to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the education portions of the budget. Among other things, the Senate has offered to move to the House position on the Required Local Effort millage rate which provides for a partial roll back in the millage rate so that it will capture only that growth in property values that is attributable to new construction and related property improvements. The House is expected to respond to the Senate offer and make a counter-offer tomorrow. You may review the Senate offer, that includes a statewide FEFP summary that results from this first offer, HERE. Please keep in mind that this is just the first offer and it is too early to draw any conclusions about the outcome of the budget — the FEFP and other education funding totals will see-saw up and down as more offers and counter-offers are presented. We will keep you informed as this process progresses.
[toggle title=”Today’s Happenings – February 28, 2018“]
In the House Session:
HB 7007 – Ethics Reform by Public Integrity & Ethics – READ 2ND TIME; PLACED ON 3RD READING FOR 3/1/18
The bill addresses public officer, employee and third party conduct regarding sexual harassment, solicitation and negotiation of conflicting and potentially conflicting income producing relationships, addresses post-service lobbying restrictions for certain officers, and revises executive branch lobbyist registration requirements in addition to other reforms. Specifically, the bill:
- Removes restrictions on state employees lobbying the legislature;
- Establishes policy to prohibit and prevent sexual harassment in all branches of government;
- Restricts use of campaign funds to defend legal claims arising out of public service and limits use of public service announcements during a campaign;
- Broadens the Code of Ethics to prohibit sexual harassment of or by state employees and third parties, and, relating to sexual harassment, prohibits disclosures of confidential information, retaliation, or false complaints;
- Requires agencies to adopt policies to manage reports and complaints of sexual harassment, including policies to protect and provide certain accommodations to victims of alleged sexual harassment;
- Requires biennial surveys of the climate of sexual harassment in agencies and establishes a task force to review surveys, rules, and policies to make recommendations to improve sexual harassment policies;
- Prohibits public officers and employees from soliciting an employment or contractual relationship from entities with whom they are prohibited from entering into conflicting employment and contractual relationships;
- Requires public officers and employees to report or disclose particular solicitations and offers of employment or contractual relationships;
- Imposes a two-year post-service ban on personal representation before any state executive branch agency for agency directors including department secretaries, except when employed by another state agency;
- Imposes certain restrictions on statewide elected officers and legislators related to employment or investment advice;
- Restricts certain unelected state officers and employees regarding soliciting and negotiating an employment or contractual relationship with certain employers;
- Authorizes the Commission on Ethics to investigate disclosures of certain prohibited solicitations in the same manner as a complaint; and
- Revises executive branch lobbying registration requirements to mandate electronic registration, clarify provisions, adjust the maximum registration fee, and add the Board of Governors of the State University System and the State Board of Education to the list of entities to which the requirements apply.
[NOTE: There is no direct Senate companion bill.]
HB 7073 – Government Integrity by Public Integrity & Ethics – READ 2ND TIME; AMENDED; PLACED ON 3RD READING FOR 3/1/18
The bill includes various provisions designed to promote integrity in government and identify and eliminate fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and misconduct in government. Specifically, the bill:
- Creates the Florida Accountability Office under the Auditor General for the purpose of ensuring accountability and integrity in state and local government and facilitating the elimination of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and misconduct in government.
- Requires the Chief Inspector General (CIG) and agency inspectors general to determine whether there is reasonable probability that fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, or misconduct in government has occurred within six months of initiating an investigation of such activity.
- Provides a mechanism for the state to recover funds when the CIG or an agency inspector general determines a public official, independent contractor, or agency has committed fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, or misconduct in government.
- Requires the Chief Financial Officer to regularly forward to the Florida Accountability Officer copies of suggestions and information submitted through the state’s “Get Lean” hotline,.
- Provides a financial incentive for agency employees to file Whistle-blower’s Act complaints and participate in investigations that lead to the recovery of funds.
- Requires a claim for legal fees to be paid in whole or in part by any state or local agency to be documented by a description with reasonable particularity of the services provided;
- For agency contracts over $50,000, requires a contractor to include in the contract a good faith estimate of gross profit for each year of the contract, provides a process for the agency to review such estimate, and provides financial penalties for a contractor who misrepresents the estimate.
- Prohibits state or local tax incentive funds from being used to award or pay a state contractor for services provided or expenditures incurred pursuant to a state contract.
- Requires school districts that receive annual federal, state, and local funds in excess of $500 million to employ an internal auditor and provided duties for such auditor.
- Broadens the competitive solicitation exemption for statewide broadcasting of public service announcements.
- Prohibits a state employee, other than an agency head, from lobbying for funding for a contract or participating in the award of the contract.
[NOTE: Today’s amendments were generally technical and clarifying in nature. There is no direct Senate companion bill.]
HB 697 – Impact Fees by Miller – READ 2ND TIME; PLACED ON 3RD READING FOR 3/1/18
The bill prohibits any local government from requiring payment of impact fees any time prior to issuing a building permit. The bill codifies the requirement for impact fees to bear a rational nexus both to the need for additional capital facilities and to the expenditure of funds collected and the benefits accruing to the new construction. Local governments will be required to designate the funds collected by the impact fees for acquiring, constructing, or improving the capital facilities to benefit the new users. Impact fees collected by a local government may not be used to pay existing debt or pay for prior approved projects unless such expenditure has a rational nexus to the impact generated by the new construction. The bill further excludes fees charged for connecting to water and sewer systems. The bill prohibits local governments from requiring in a specific area plan or related development order that a developer pay part or all the of costs to buy land or expand public facilities unless the local government has an ordinance requiring developers outside of the area plan to contribute a proportionate share of the funds, land, or public facilities necessary to offset the impacts of the development. When allowed by the statute, such funding obligation must have an essential nexus and be roughly proportionate to the proposed development. The bill also creates specific requirements and deadlines for a local government to review, process, and decide on applications for a specific area plan or related development order. [NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 324 — is comparable and has passed three of three committees of reference.]
HB 1091 – Early Learning by Grall – READ 2ND TIME; PLACED ON 3RD READING FOR 3/1/18
The bill revises provisions related to the School Readiness program by:
- Expanding the definition of “at-risk” for eligibility purposes;
- Requiring the Office of Early Learning (OEL) to identify observation-based child assessments;
- Requiring OEL to adopt program assessment requirements that measure teacher-child interactions;
- Requiring OEL to revise the statewide provider contract to include contracted slots and quality improvement strategies, if applicable, and program assessment requirements;
- Establishing a payment differential of up to 15 percent based on program assessment results with no more than 5% of the 15% allocated based on submission of data by providers that implement an observation-based child assessment identified by OEL;
- Modifying the required functionality of the single statewide information system;
- Requiring OEL’s annual report to include certain program assessment information;
- Requiring Early Learning Coalitions (ELC) to establish local eligibility priorities and include them in their biennial School Readiness plans;
- Requiring an ELC’s biennial plan to include procedures for the use of contracted slots, a description of quality improvement strategies, and the results of a community needs assessment;
- Requiring School Readiness providers to participate in a program assessment; and
- Allowing the award of grants and financial supports to providers and instructors to meet program assessment requirements.
- Appropriates $6 million to the OEL to implement the program assessment.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 1254 — is similar and has passed two of three committees of reference.]
HB 1035 – Personalized Education by Sullivan – READ 2ND TIME; PLACED ON 3RD READING FOR 3/1/18
The bill:
- Renames the Competency-Based Education Pilot Program to the Mastery-Based Education Pilot Program.
- Allows any district in the state to submit an application to DOE to participate.
- Authorizes districts participating in the pilot program to use an alternative interpretation of letter grades to measure student success in grades 6-12. The alternate system must meet specific requirements and be approved by the district school board.
- Allows districts to determine and award one full credit toward high school graduation based on the student’s mastery of core content and skills without meeting the current minimum requirement of 135 or 120 hours of bona fide instruction to award one full credit.
- Requires the statewide articulation agreement to ensure fair and equitable access for high school graduates with mastery-based, nontraditional diplomas and transcripts.
- Expands the allowable uses of Gardiner Scholarship funds to include:
- Part-time tutoring by a person with a bachelor’s degree or graduate degree in the subject area in which instruction is given; and
- Tuition and fees associated for a nationally or internationally recognized program for children with a neurological disorder or brain damage.
- Establishes the Reading Summer Scholarship Account to provide a struggling reader with a scholarship to customize a reading program to improve his or her reading skills.
- Appropriates $9,700,000 to fund the reading scholarship accounts and an additional $300,000 for the administrative fee for the participating SFOs. The allocation of these funds is contingent upon HB 7055 or similar legislation failing to become law.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 968 — is similar but has not been heard in any of three committees of reference.]
HB 887 – Reading Instruction by Harrell – READ 2ND TIME; PLACED ON 3RD READING FOR 3/1/18
To further increase the quality of reading interventions, the bill:
- Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, requires teachers who provide reading interventions under a school district’s K-12 comprehensive reading plan to be certified or endorsed in reading;
- Requires the Florida Department of Education (DOE), as part of its review of certain certification and endorsement requirements, to consider awarding a reading endorsement to teachers who are certified by an internationally recognized reading intervention organization or who complete a program accredited by the organization; and
- Requires school districts to provide teachers access to training for a reading endorsement consistent with the DOE’s review of endorsement requirements.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 1306 — is identical and has passed two of three committees of reference.]
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[toggle title=”Coming Up Tomorrow – March 1, 2018“]
Please note that the meeting listed below may be viewed via live webcast on the Florida Channel. For real-time updates, please click HERE to access our Twitter feed.
The Senate Rules Committee will meet, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, to consider the following items and others:
SB 1940 – Public Records and Public Meetings/School Safety by Galvano
The bill creates public records and public meetings exemptions for certain information related to school safety. Specifically, the bill provides the following exemptions:
- As part of the School Safety Awareness Program, the bill makes confidential and exempt from disclosure the identity of a party making a report of suspicious activity which is held by the Department of Law Enforcement, a law enforcement agency, or school officials;
- The bill makes exempt from disclosure a portion of a meeting of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission (Commission) at which exempt or confidential and exempt information is discussed; and
- The bill makes exempt from disclosure any information held by a law enforcement agency, school district, or charter school which would identify whether a particular individual has been appointed as a safe-school officer.
HB 7045 – Date for Convening the 2020 Legislative Session by Rules & Policy
The bill requires the 2020 regular session of the Legislature to convene on Tuesday, January 14, 2020.
SB 260 – Students with Disabilities in Public Schools by Book
The bill revises the use of restraint techniques on certain students with disabilities, prohibits placing such students in seclusion, and specifies responsibilities for school districts, schools, and the Commissioner of Education (commissioner). Specifically, the bill:
- Defines student to mean a student with a disability.
- Defines exclusionary and nonexclusionary time; establishes conditions under which a student may be placed in exclusionary or nonexclusionary time; and specifies related documentation, reporting and monitoring of such incidents.
- Prohibits the use of specified physical restraint techniques by school personnel on students.
- Requires each school district to:
- Develop policies and procedures regarding physical safety and security of all students and school personnel.
- Report procedures for training related to restraint and the bill specifies the components of such training.
- Publicly post its policies on all emergency procedures, including the district’s policies on the use of restraint and seclusion.
- Requires a school to conduct a review of incidents of restraint, and related interventions and school personnel training.
- Requires redacted copies of documentation related to the use of restraint and exclusionary and nonexclusionary time to be updated monthly and made available to the public through the Department of Education’s website by October 1, 2018.
- Requires the commissioner to develop recommendations to incorporate instruction regarding emotional or behavioral disabilities into continuing education and inservice training requirements for instructional personnel.
SB 1426 – Local Government Fiscal Transparency by Lee
The bill creates the Local Government Fiscal Transparency Act. The act:
- Requires local governments to post on their websites the voting records related to taxes and debt.
- Requires property appraisers to maintain a website that includes certain property tax information.
- Requires local governments to provide additional notice of tax increases and new tax-supported debt.
- Requires local governments to undergo a debt affordability analysis before authorizing debt.
- Requires local government audits submitted to the Auditor General to be accompanied by an affidavit from the chair of the governing board stating that the local government has complied with the Local Government Fiscal Transparency Act.
- The bill also:
- Requires the Auditor General, during its review of local government audit reports, to request evidence of corrective action from local governments found not to be in compliance under certain circumstances; and requires local governments to provide evidence of such correction action and evidence of completion of such action within a specified period.
- Revises the local government annual reporting requirements for economic development incentives.
The House will be in Session, 10:30 am – completion of business to consider the following items and others on 3rd Reading:
HB 7007 – Ethics Reform by Public Integrity & Ethics
The bill addresses public officer, employee and third party conduct regarding sexual harassment, solicitation and negotiation of conflicting and potentially conflicting income producing relationships, addresses post-service lobbying restrictions for certain officers, and revises executive branch lobbyist registration requirements in addition to other reforms. Specifically, the bill:
- Removes restrictions on state employees lobbying the legislature;
- Establishes policy to prohibit and prevent sexual harassment in all branches of government;
- Restricts use of campaign funds to defend legal claims arising out of public service and limits use of public service announcements during a campaign;
- Broadens the Code of Ethics to prohibit sexual harassment of or by state employees and third parties, and, relating to sexual harassment, prohibits disclosures of confidential information, retaliation, or false complaints;
- Requires agencies to adopt policies to manage reports and complaints of sexual harassment, including policies to protect and provide certain accommodations to victims of alleged sexual harassment;
- Requires biennial surveys of the climate of sexual harassment in agencies and establishes a task force to review surveys, rules, and policies to make recommendations to improve sexual harassment policies;
- Prohibits public officers and employees from soliciting an employment or contractual relationship from entities with whom they are prohibited from entering into conflicting employment and contractual relationships;
- Requires public officers and employees to report or disclose particular solicitations and offers of employment or contractual relationships;
- Imposes a two-year post-service ban on personal representation before any state executive branch agency for agency directors including department secretaries, except when employed by another state agency;
- Imposes certain restrictions on statewide elected officers and legislators related to employment or investment advice;
- Restricts certain unelected state officers and employees regarding soliciting and negotiating an employment or contractual relationship with certain employers;
- Authorizes the Commission on Ethics to investigate disclosures of certain prohibited solicitations in the same manner as a complaint; and
- Revises executive branch lobbying registration requirements to mandate electronic registration, clarify provisions, adjust the maximum registration fee, and add the Board of Governors of the State University System and the State Board of Education to the list of entities to which the requirements apply.
[NOTE: There is no direct Senate companion bill.]
HB 7073 – Government Integrity by Public Integrity & Ethics
The bill includes various provisions designed to promote integrity in government and identify and eliminate fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and misconduct in government. Specifically, the bill:
- Creates the Florida Accountability Office under the Auditor General for the purpose of ensuring accountability and integrity in state and local government and facilitating the elimination of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and misconduct in government.
- Requires the Chief Inspector General (CIG) and agency inspectors general to determine whether there is reasonable probability that fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, or misconduct in government has occurred within six months of initiating an investigation of such activity.
- Provides a mechanism for the state to recover funds when the CIG or an agency inspector general determines a public official, independent contractor, or agency has committed fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, or misconduct in government.
- Requires the Chief Financial Officer to regularly forward to the Florida Accountability Officer copies of suggestions and information submitted through the state’s “Get Lean” hotline,.
- Provides a financial incentive for agency employees to file Whistle-blower’s Act complaints and participate in investigations that lead to the recovery of funds.
- Requires a claim for legal fees to be paid in whole or in part by any state or local agency to be documented by a description with reasonable particularity of the services provided;
- For agency contracts over $50,000, requires a contractor to include in the contract a good faith estimate of gross profit for each year of the contract, provides a process for the agency to review such estimate, and provides financial penalties for a contractor who misrepresents the estimate.
- Prohibits state or local tax incentive funds from being used to award or pay a state contractor for services provided or expenditures incurred pursuant to a state contract.
- Requires school districts that receive annual federal, state, and local funds in excess of $500 million to employ an internal auditor and provided duties for such auditor.
- Broadens the competitive solicitation exemption for statewide broadcasting of public service announcements.
- Prohibits a state employee, other than an agency head, from lobbying for funding for a contract or participating in the award of the contract.
[NOTE: Today’s amendments were generally technical and clarifying in nature. There is no direct Senate companion bill.]
HB 697 – Impact Fees by Miller
The bill prohibits any local government from requiring payment of impact fees any time prior to issuing a building permit. The bill codifies the requirement for impact fees to bear a rational nexus both to the need for additional capital facilities and to the expenditure of funds collected and the benefits accruing to the new construction. Local governments will be required to designate the funds collected by the impact fees for acquiring, constructing, or improving the capital facilities to benefit the new users. Impact fees collected by a local government may not be used to pay existing debt or pay for prior approved projects unless such expenditure has a rational nexus to the impact generated by the new construction. The bill further excludes fees charged for connecting to water and sewer systems. The bill prohibits local governments from requiring in a specific area plan or related development order that a developer pay part or all the of costs to buy land or expand public facilities unless the local government has an ordinance requiring developers outside of the area plan to contribute a proportionate share of the funds, land, or public facilities necessary to offset the impacts of the development. When allowed by the statute, such funding obligation must have an essential nexus and be roughly proportionate to the proposed development. The bill also creates specific requirements and deadlines for a local government to review, process, and decide on applications for a specific area plan or related development order. [NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 324 — is comparable and has passed three of three committees of reference.]
HB 1091 – Early Learning by Grall
The bill revises provisions related to the School Readiness program by:
- Expanding the definition of “at-risk” for eligibility purposes;
- Requiring the Office of Early Learning (OEL) to identify observation-based child assessments;
- Requiring OEL to adopt program assessment requirements that measure teacher-child interactions;
- Requiring OEL to revise the statewide provider contract to include contracted slots and quality improvement strategies, if applicable, and program assessment requirements;
- Establishing a payment differential of up to 15 percent based on program assessment results with no more than 5% of the 15% allocated based on submission of data by providers that implement an observation-based child assessment identified by OEL;
- Modifying the required functionality of the single statewide information system;
- Requiring OEL’s annual report to include certain program assessment information;
- Requiring Early Learning Coalitions (ELC) to establish local eligibility priorities and include them in their biennial School Readiness plans;
- Requiring an ELC’s biennial plan to include procedures for the use of contracted slots, a description of quality improvement strategies, and the results of a community needs assessment;
- Requiring School Readiness providers to participate in a program assessment; and
- Allowing the award of grants and financial supports to providers and instructors to meet program assessment requirements.
- Appropriates $6 million to the OEL to implement the program assessment.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 1254 — is similar and has passed two of three committees of reference.]
HB 1035 – Personalized Education by Sullivan
The bill:
- Renames the Competency-Based Education Pilot Program to the Mastery-Based Education Pilot Program.
- Allows any district in the state to submit an application to DOE to participate.
- Authorizes districts participating in the pilot program to use an alternative interpretation of letter grades to measure student success in grades 6-12. The alternate system must meet specific requirements and be approved by the district school board.
- Allows districts to determine and award one full credit toward high school graduation based on the student’s mastery of core content and skills without meeting the current minimum requirement of 135 or 120 hours of bona fide instruction to award one full credit.
- Requires the statewide articulation agreement to ensure fair and equitable access for high school graduates with mastery-based, nontraditional diplomas and transcripts.
- Expands the allowable uses of Gardiner Scholarship funds to include:
- Part-time tutoring by a person with a bachelor’s degree or graduate degree in the subject area in which instruction is given; and
- Tuition and fees associated for a nationally or internationally recognized program for children with a neurological disorder or brain damage.
- Establishes the Reading Summer Scholarship Account to provide a struggling reader with a scholarship to customize a reading program to improve his or her reading skills.
- Appropriates $9,700,000 to fund the reading scholarship accounts and an additional $300,000 for the administrative fee for the participating SFOs. The allocation of these funds is contingent upon HB 7055 or similar legislation failing to become law.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 968 — is similar but has not been heard in any of three committees of reference.]
HB 887 – Reading Instruction by Harrell
To further increase the quality of reading interventions, the bill:
- Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, requires teachers who provide reading interventions under a school district’s K-12 comprehensive reading plan to be certified or endorsed in reading;
- Requires the Florida Department of Education (DOE), as part of its review of certain certification and endorsement requirements, to consider awarding a reading endorsement to teachers who are certified by an internationally recognized reading intervention organization or who complete a program accredited by the organization; and
- Requires school districts to provide teachers access to training for a reading endorsement consistent with the DOE’s review of endorsement requirements.
[NOTE: The Senate companion bill — SB 1306 — is identical and has passed two of three committees of reference.]
The Senate will be in Session, 1:00 – 6:00 pm, to consider the following items and others on 2nd Reading:
SB 7026 – Public Safety by Rules
The bill provides law enforcement, the courts, and schools with the tools to enhance public safety by temporarily restricting firearm possession by a person who is undergoing a mental health crisis and when there is evidence of a threat of violence. The bill also promotes school safety and enhanced coordination between education and law enforcement entities at the state and local level. Specifically, the bill:
- Creates the Medical Reimbursement Program for Victims of Mass Shootings to reimburse trauma centers from the medical costs of treating victims for injuries associated with a mass shooting.
- Authorizes a law enforcement officer who is taking a person into custody for an involuntary examination under the Baker Act to seize and hold a firearm or ammunition the person possesses at the time of being taken into custody if the person poses a potential danger to himself or herself or others and has made a credible threat of violence against another person.
- Allows an officer who is taking a person into custody at his or her residence to seek the voluntary surrender of firearms or ammunition kept in the residence not already seized.
- Prohibits a person who has been adjudicated mentally defective or who has been committed to a mental institution from owning or possessing a firearm until a court orders otherwise.
- Requires a three-day waiting period for all firearms, not just handguns or until the background check is complete, whichever is later.
- Prohibits a person under 21 years of age from purchasing a firearm.
- Prohibits a licensed firearm dealer, importer, or manufacturer, from making or facilitating the sale or transfer of a firearm to a person under the age of 21. This prohibition does not apply to the purchase of a rifle or shotgun by a law enforcement officer or a correctional officer or to a member of the military.
- Prohibits a bump-fire stock from being imported, transferred, distributed, transported, sold, keeping for sale, offering or exposing for sale, or given away within the state.
- Creates a process for a law enforcement officer or law enforcement agency to petition a court for a risk protection order to temporarily prevent persons who are at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms when a person poses a significant danger to himself or herself or others, including significant danger as a result of a mental health crisis or violent behavior.
- Provides a court can issue a risk protection order for up to 12 months.
- Allows a court to issue temporary ex parte risk protection order in certain circumstances.
- Requires the surrender of all firearms and ammunition if a risk protection order or ex parte risk protection order is issued.
- Provides a process for a risk protection order to be vacated or extended.
- Establishes the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to investigate system failures in the Parkland school shooting and prior mass violence incidents, and develop recommendations for system improvements.
- Codifies the Office of Safe Schools (office) within the Florida Department of Education (DOE) and specifies the purpose of the office is to serve as the state education agency’s primary coordinating division for promoting and supporting safe-learning environments.
- Creates the Florida Sheriff’s Marshal Program within the DOE as a voluntary program to assist school districts and public schools in enhancing the safety and security of students, faculty, staff, and visitors to Florida’s public schools and campuses.
- Codifies the Multiagency Service Network for Students with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SEDNET) as a function of the DOE in partnership with other state, regional, and local entities to facilitate collaboration and communication between the specified entities.
- Establishes the Public School Emergency Response Learning System Program to assist school personnel in preparing for and responding to active emergency situations and to implement local notification systems for all Florida public schools.
- Establishes the “FortifyFL” program and requires the FDLE to procure a mobile suspicious activity reporting tool that allows students and the community to report information anonymously about specified activities or the threat of such activities to appropriate public safety agencies and school officials.
- Requires each district school board and school district superintendent to cooperate with law enforcement agencies to assign one or more safe-school officers at each school facility, and:
- Requires each district school board to designate a district school safety specialist to serve as the district’s primary point of public contact for public school safety functions.
- Requires each school district to designate a threat assessment team at each school, and requires the team to operate under the district school safety specialist’s direction.
- Creates the mental health assistance allocation to provide supplemental funding to assist school districts and charter schools in establishing or expanding comprehensive mental health programs and to connect students and families with appropriate services.
- Clarifies the applicability of public records exemptions for security systems and plans.
- Appropriates $200 million in nonrecurring and $200 million in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund to implement the bill provisions.
SB 7024 – Public Records / Victim of a Crime of Mass Violence by Rules
The bill makes the address of a victim of an incident of mass violence exempt from public records disclosure and copying requirements. The bill defines “an incident of mass violence” as an incident in which three or more people, other than the perpetrator, are severely injured or killed by an intentional act of violence. A victim is considered to be a person killed or injured during an incident of mass violence.
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