FSBA Session Spotlight — March 5, 2018

As we begin the last scheduled week of the 2018 Session, please take a few minutes to view our Legislative Weekly video featuring Andrea Messina providing a recap of recent legislative events and focusing on the key bills and issues that remain to be resolved.  One of those key bills – HB 7055 — was resolved today.  The Senate, which had originally proposed a version of this bill that included fewer provisions and greater accountability than the House version, ultimately passed a version that is very similar to the original House bill.  The bill was sent back to the House which spent relatively little time to approve it.  HB 7055 will now go to the Governor for his signature or veto.  In other action today, the Senate passed its version of the public safety bill – SB 7026 – which had been discussed and debated at length during 2^nd Reading on Saturday and was passed with a few new amendments today on 3^rd Reading.  The bill will now go to the House for consideration along with the House version of this legislation – HB 7101.  Please click on the first link below for a summary of these two major bills, as well as several  others that were considered today.

Tomorrow, both chambers will be in Session. Of particular interest, the House will be considering the Senate’s public safety bills that the Senate passed today.  In addition, bills relating to daylight savings time, juvenile justice, and curriculum will be considered.  Also, please keep in mind that, at this point in the Legislative Session, the chambers may depart from their agenda to take up bills that arrive from the other chamber in Messages.  Please click on the second link below for a preview of the bills of interest that are on the agenda.

[toggle title=”Today’s Happenings – March 5, 2018“]

In the Senate Session:

HB 7055 – Education by Education – READ 3^RD TIME; AMENDED; PASSED THE SENATE; IN RETURNING MESSAGES TO THE HOUSE; HOUSE CONCURRED; PASSED THE LEGISLATURE
This omnibus bill addresses a variety of topics including, among others, scholarship programs, charter schools, curriculum, early learning, public school choice, personnel, and funding.  Below is an outline of the major provisions.

The bill creates and revises provisions relating to scholarship programs including:

• Establishes the Hope Scholarship Program to provide the parent of a public school student who was subjected bullying, abuse, violence, and/or other acts of misconduct an opportunity to transfer the student to another public school or to request a scholarship for the student to enroll in and attend an eligible private school.
  • Provides that funding for the scholarships is derived from contributions of up to $105 to an eligible scholarship funding organization (SFO) by the purchaser of a motor vehicle.
  • Provides that the maximum scholarship amount for a student enrolled in an eligible private school shall be a percentage of the unweighted FTE funding amount for that state fiscal year; the maximum scholarship amount for a student enrolled in a public school outside the district shall be $750.
• Establishes reading scholarship accounts for public school students in grades 3 through 5 who scored below a Level 3 on the grade 3 or grade 4 statewide, standardized ELA assessment in the prior school year. The scholarship must be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and is contingent upon available funds, with the maximum award established annually in the General Appropriations Act.
• Consolidates, streamlines, and strengthens accountability and oversight provisions for private school scholarship programs.
• Expands allowable expenditures of scholarship funds in the Gardiner Scholarship Program.
• Revises funding and related provisions for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program.

The bill modifies provisions relating to charter schools, including:

• Extending from 2 years to 3 years, the authority of charter schools to defer the opening of the schools’ operations.
• Extending the initial term of a charter contract from 4 or 5 years, as specified in law, to 5 years, excluding 1 planning year.
• Revising the charter school sponsor’s authority to not renew or terminate a charter contract to specify that the sponsor may do so only after finding clear and convincing evidence of the disqualifying grounds specified in law.
• Eliminating the opportunity for a charter school governing board to request a direct hearing before the sponsor based on the nonrenewal or termination of its charter contract, effectively providing that such hearing must be before an administrative law judge.
• Requiring a district school board to reimburse the cost of background screening for governing board members and instructional and noninstructional personnel of a charter school if the district does not notify the charter school of the eligibility of such individuals within 14 days after the submission of fingerprints.
• Allowing charter schools and charter management organizations to provide educational leadership preparation programs.

The bill modifies high-performing charter school provisions, including:

• Specifying that the application of a high-performing charter school or a high-performing charter school system may be denied only if the sponsor demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that such school or system does not materially comply with the standard application requirements.
• Specifying that student enrollment may not exceed capacity of the facility at the time of enrollment, effectively allowing a high-performing charter school that has expanded its original facility or has access to additional facilities, to increase student enrollment without being limited to the original facility’s capacity.
• Authorizing a high-performing charter school to replicate to two charter schools within the state in any year.

The bill revises provisions relating to district flexibility, instructional programs, and public school choice, including:

• Expands the Principal Autonomy Pilot Program Initiative to a statewide program.
• Revises provisions relating to participation in interscholastic and intrascholastic extracurricular student activities by a home education student, a charter school student, or a Florida Virtual School student to provide that the student must register with the school his or her intent to participate as a representative of the school before he/she participates (rather than before the beginning date of the season for the activity).
• Requires instruction in the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
• Revises and expands provisions relating to home school and private school dual enrollment by:
  • Removing the provision in the home education program dual enrollment articulation agreement specifying that a home education student must be responsible for his or her own instructional materials.
  • Modifying provisions in the dual enrollment articulation agreement between an eligible public postsecondary education institution and an eligible private secondary school to specify that tuition and fees for dual enrollment may not be passed along to the private school that the student attends.

Revises provisions relating to personnel, including:

• Requires, for an employee organization that has been certified as the bargaining agent for a unit of instructional personnel, the following:
  • Information that must be in an application for renewal of registration, including the number of employees eligible for representation by the employee organization and the number who are represented by the employee organization, specifying the number of members who pay dues and the number of members who do not pay dues.
  • An employee organization whose dues paying membership is less than 50 percent of the employees eligible for representation in the unit to petition the Public Employees Relations Commission for recertification.
• Extends eligibility for the Florida Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program to provide that a school district employee who is no longer a classroom teacher may receive an award if the employee was a classroom teacher in the prior school year, was rated highly effective, and met the eligibility requirements as a classroom teacher.
• Requires professional development resources to include sample course-at-a-glance and unit overview templates.
• Adds charters schools and charter management organizations to the entities authorized to offer Level I or Level II school leader preparation programs.

Revises provisions relating to operating and capital funding, including:

• Revises provisions relating to the use of Supplemental Academic Instruction funding to provide that each school district that has one or more of the 300 lowest-performing elementary schools based on a 3-year average of the state reading assessment data must use the school’s portion of the allocation to provide an additional hour per day of intensive reading for the students in each school. The additional hour may be provided within the school day. Students enrolled in these schools who earned a level 4 or 5 score on the English Language Arts assessment for the previous school year may participate in the extra hour of instruction.
• Revises requirements for the distribution of Title I funds.
• Clarifies requirement for distributing discretionary capital outlay millage revenues with charter schools.
• Authorizes a district to use certain sources of funds for educational, auxiliary, and ancillary plant capital outlay purposes without needing a survey recommendation.
• Provides additional exceptions to certain building code regulations for school districts.
• Appropriates a total of $13,850,000 to the Department of Education to implement the provisions of the bill.

SB 7026 – Public Safety by Rules – READ 3^RD TIME; AMENDED; PASSED THE SENATE; IN MESSAGES TO THE HOUSE
The bill addresses the crisis of gun violence, including but not limited to, gun violence on school campuses. The bill provides law enforcement and the courts 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, and by promoting school safety and enhanced coordination between education and law enforcement entities at the state and local level.

With regard to keeping firearms out of the hands of those suffering from mental illness, the bill:

• 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 from the person for 24 hours after the person is released and does not have a risk protection order against them or is the subject of a firearm disability.
• 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.
• 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, and:
  • Allows a court to issue a risk protection order for up to 12 months.
  • Requires the surrender of all firearms and ammunition if a risk protection order is issued.
  • Provides a process for a risk protection order to be vacated or extended.

With regard to firearms, the bill:

• Requires a three-day waiting period for all firearms (rather than only for handguns) or until the background check is completed, whichever is later.
• Provides exceptions for the purchase of all firearms for concealed weapons permit holders, and, for the purchase of firearms other than handguns, provides an exception for:
  • Individuals who have completed a 16 hour hunter safety course; or
  • Law enforcement officers, correctional officers and service members (military and national guard)
• Prohibits a person under 21 years of age from purchasing a firearm and prohibits licensed firearm dealers, importers, and manufacturers, from selling a firearm, except in the case of a member of the military, or a law enforcement or correctional officer when purchasing a rifle or shotgun. (Persons under 21 years of age are already prohibited from purchasing a handgun under federal law.)
• Prohibits a bump-fire stock from being imported, transferred, distributed, sold, keeping for sale, offering for sale, possessing, or giving away within the state.

With regard to improving school safety, the bill:

• Establishes the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission 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 within the Florida Department of Education (DOE) and which will service as a central repository for the best practices, training standards, and compliance regarding school safety and security.
• Authorizes the sheriff, if he/she so chooses, to establish a Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program to aid in the prevention or abatement of active assailant incidents on school premises.
  • The school district may participate in the Guardian Program if it is available in their county and school employees may volunteer to participate in the necessary training.
  • Individuals who exclusively perform classroom duties as classroom teachers as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a) are excluded from participation in the Guardian Program.
  • A school guardian has no authority to act in any law enforcement capacity except to the extent necessary to prevent or abate an active assailant incident on a school premises.
  • School employees who volunteer to participate in the Guardian Program must:
    • Hold a valid license to carry a concealed weapon issued under s. 790.06, F.S.
    • Complete 132 total hours of comprehensive firearm safety and proficiency training conducted by Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission-certified instructors.
    • Pass a psychological evaluation
    • Submit to and pass an initial drug test and subsequent random drug tests.
    • Successfully complete ongoing training, weapon inspection, and firearm qualification on at least an annual basis.
    • Successfully complete at least 12 hours of a certified nationally recognized diversity training program.
• 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.
• 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 school safety specialists and a threat assessment team at each school, and requires the team to operate under the district school safety specialist’s direction.
• Requires the DOE to contract for the development of a Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool which will assist school districts in conducting security assessments to identify threats and vulnerabilities.
• Creates the mental health assistance allocation to assist school districts in establishing or expanding school-based mental health care.

The bill also:

• Provides that the cost per student station also does not include the cost for securing entries, checkpoint construction, lighting specifically designed for entry point security, security cameras, automatic locks and locking devices, electronic security systems, fencing designed to prevent intruder entry into a building, bullet-proof glass, or other capital construction items approved by the school safety specialist to ensure building security for new educational, auxiliary, or ancillary facilities and specifies that the costs for these items must be below 2% per student station.
• Prohibits a person from making, posting, or transmitting a threat to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.
• Requires DCF to contract for community action treatment teams to provider behavioral health and support services.
• Requires FDLE to procure a mobile app that would allow students and the community to relay information anonymously concerning unsafe, dangerous threats. The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglass recommended that the program be named “FortifyFL”

The legislation appropriates $400 million to implement the bill provisions, including the following:

• Over $69 million to the DOE to fund the mental health assistance allocation;
• $1 million for the design and construction of a memorial honoring those who lost their lives on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
• Over $25 million for replacing building 12 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
• Over $67 million for sheriff’s offices who decide to establish a school marshal program.
• Over $97 million for the safe schools allocation.
• Over $98 million to implement a grant program for improving and hardening the physical security of school buildings.
• $18.3 million to DCF for additional mobile crisis teams to ensure reasonable access among all counties.

[NOTE: Today’s amendments renamed the Marshal Program as the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program and specified that individuals who exclusively perform classroom duties as classroom teachers as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a), F.S. are excluded from participating in Guardian Program. This bill has been received in Messages in the House and has been placed on the House Special Order Calendar for 3/6/18. The House companion bill – HB 7101 – is similar and is on the House Calendar on 2^nd Reading.]

SB 7024 – Public Records / Victim of a Crime of Mass Violence by Rules – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE SENATE; IN MESSAGES TO THE HOUSE
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 four or more people, other than the perpetrator, are severely injured or killed by an intentional and indiscriminate act of violence. A victim is considered to be a person killed or injured during an incident of mass violence.  [NOTE:  This bill has been received in Messages in the House and has been placed on the House Special Order Calendar for 3/6/18.  The House companion bill – HB 7105 – is similar and is on the House Calendar on 2^nd Reading.]

SB 1940 – Public Records and Public Meetings/School Safety by Galvano – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE SENATE; IN MESSAGES TO THE HOUSE
The bill creates public records and public meetings exemptions for certain information related to school safety. Specifically, the bill provides the following exemptions:

• Exemptions from public records requirements for the identity of a reporting party and any information received through the mobile suspicious activity reporting tool which is held by the Department of Law Enforcement, law enforcement agencies, or school officials.
• Exemption from public meetings requirements for portions of meetings of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission at which exempt or confidential and exempt information is discussed.
• Exemption from public records requirements for information that would identify whether a particular individual has been appointed as a safe-school officer.

[NOTE: This bill has been received in Messages in the House and has been placed on the House Special Order Calendar for 3/6/18.  The House companion bill – SB 1940 – is similar and is on the House Calendar on 2^nd Reading.]

HB 1279 – School District Accountability by Sullivan – READ 3^RD TIME; AMENDED; PASSED THE SENATE; IN RETURNING MESSAGES TO THE HOUSE; HOUSE CONCURRED; PASSED THE LEGISLATURE
To increase fiscal transparency of educational spending, the bill:

• Requires school boards to provide financial efficiency data and fiscal trend information;
• Requires the Department of Education to develop a web-based tool that identifies schools and districts with high academic achievement based on per pupil expenditures; and
• Requires school boards to provide a full explanation of, and approve, any budget amendment at the boards’ next public meeting.

To increase fiscal accountability of districts, the bill:

• Requires school districts with revenues over $500 million to employ an internal auditor;
• Requires school districts with low ending fund balances to reduce administrative costs and other expenditures;
• Requires districts with financial emergency conditions to withhold the salaries of certain superintendents and school board members until the emergency is addressed;
• Requires an investigation of school districts who are unable to timely pay current debts and liabilities;
• Clarifies that the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General must investigate allegations and reports of fraud and abuse from certain government officials; and
• Requires school districts with previous operational audit findings to initiate and complete corrective action within a certain period of time.

The bill also:

• Prohibits appointed, along with elected superintendents, from lobbying school districts for a period of two years after vacating the position;
• Aligns school board member salaries with beginning teacher salaries or the amount calculated by statute;
• Requires prior school board approval for reimbursement of certain out-of-district travel expenses;
• Authorizes the withholding of a portion of an employee’s salary who owes a public financial disclosure fine;
• Repeals s. 1011.64, F.S., relating to school district minimum classroom expenditure requirements; and
• Prohibits superintendents, along with school board members, from employing or appointing a relative to work under their direct supervision.
• Contingent upon HB 7055 or similar legislation failing to become law, appropriates $100,000 to the Department of Education to implement the provisions of the bill.

[NOTE: Today’s amendment revised the appropriation.]

In the House Session:

HB 1391 – Sexual Offenses Against Students by Rodrigues – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill further enhances student safety and increases accountability for school officials and employees by:

• Disqualifying a person from educator certification or employment in a position with a public school or certain private schools that involves direct contact with students if the person has a conviction for an offense against a student;
• Providing that a conviction for an offense against a student disqualifies a person from educator certification or employment in a position with a public school or certain private schools that involves direct contact with students;
• Providing that an employee’s resignation or termination of employment does not affect a school district’s responsibility to investigate complaints of misconduct;
• Requiring a school district, and an investigator hired or contracted to investigate alleged employee misconduct, to report legally sufficient complaints to the Department of Education (DOE) within 30 days;
• Requiring district school board policies to include mandatory reporting of alleged misconduct that involves engaging in sexual or lewd conduct with a student or soliciting such conduct and to require district school superintendents to report to law enforcement misconduct by school district personnel that would result in disqualification from certification or employment;
• Expanding the reasons a district school board member’s or superintendent’s salary may be forfeited for 1 year;
• Requiring a district school superintendent to notify, in writing, the parent of a student affected by certain misconduct and requiring the notification to include certain information;
• Expanding the authority of the DOE to deny certification based upon the Education Practices Commission’s (EPC) authority to issue disciplinary action against a certified educator;
• Authorizing the EPC to impose conditions upon the award of an educator certificate;
• Requiring school districts and certain schools to notify DOE when a teacher or administrator resigns before an investigation of misconduct affecting the health, safety, or welfare of a student is concluded and requiring the DOE to place an alert on the person’s certificate file indicating that he or she resigned or was terminated before such an investigation was concluded; and
• Prohibiting a teacher who violates or fails to maintain the security of an industry certification exam from receiving a bonus based on such student certification.
• Makes it a second-degree felony for an authority figure to solicit or engage in sexual or lewd conduct with a student enrolled at a school, regardless of the student’s age.
• Amends the definition of school in the trespass on school grounds statute to include a school bus, allowing law enforcement to arrest someone for trespassing on a school bus, after the commission of the crime and without a warrant, if the officer has probable cause to believe the person committed the offense.

[NOTE: There is no direct Senate companion bill.]

HB 515 – Offenses Against Students by Authority Figures by White – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill makes it a second-degree felony for an authority figure to solicit or engage in sexual or lewd conduct with a student enrolled at a school, regardless of the student’s age. The bill defines:

• “Authority figure” as a person 18 years of age or older who is employed by, volunteering at, or under contract with a school, including school resource officers.
• “School” as a private school, a voluntary prekindergarten education program, early learning program, a public school, the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, the and the Florida Virtual School.
• “Student” as a person who is enrolled at a school.

The bill amends the definition of school in the trespass on school grounds statute to include a school bus. This amendment allows law enforcement to arrest someone for trespassing on a school bus, after the commission of the crime and without a warrant, if the officer had probable cause to believe the person committed the offense.   [NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 736 – is similar but has not been heard in any of three committees of reference.]

HB 1 – The Hope Scholarship Program by Donalds —  – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill establishes, effective with the bill becoming a law, the Hope Scholarship Program (HSP), which provides the parent of a public school student who was subject to an incident of battery; harassment; hazing; bullying; kidnapping; physical attack; robbery; sexual offenses, harassment, assault, or battery; threat or intimidation; or fighting at school with the opportunity to:

• Allow the student to remain enrolled in the student’s current public school. The public school may provide a behavioral specialist or intervention counselor to assist both the student who was subjected to an incident and the alleged offender;
• Enroll the student in another public school that has capacity in the district in which the student resides;
• Enroll the student in another public school outside the district in which the student resides and receive a transportation scholarship limited to $750; or
• Apply for a Hope Scholarship and enroll his or her student in an eligible private school. transfer the student to another public school or to receive a scholarship for the student to attend a private school.

In addition, the bill:

• Establishes the duties and responsibilities of the Department of Education, the Commissioner of Education, scholarship funding organizations, parents, students, and the Auditor General.
• Establishes guidelines for funding and payment of the HSP.
• Allows taxpayers to receive tax credits for eligible contributions to fund the HSP.
• Increases accountability and oversight in all K-12 scholarship programs in the state.
• Contingent upon HB 7055 or similar legislation failing to become law, appropriates $2 million to the Department of Education to implement the provisions of the bill relating to the HSP.

In addition, the bill:

• Revises expenditures for the Gardiner Scholarship Program.
• Revises requirements for an annual report of certain student data for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program.
• Contingent upon HB 7055 or similar legislation failing to become law, appropriates $950,000 to the Department of Education to implement the additional oversight requirements for private school eligibility to participate in a scholarship program and $250,000 to the Department of Education to issue a competitive grant award to a university to annually report to the Department of Education on the performance of students participating in certain scholarship programs.

[NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 1172 – is comparable and has passed two of three committees of reference.]

HB 495 – Education/Price Level Index by Diaz —  – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill amends several provisions relating to the operation and funding of public schools. Specifically, the bill:

• Provides the same carry forward authority for undisbursed Schools of Hope Program funds as currently provided for revolving loan funds.
• Revises how school districts must spend Supplemental Academic Instruction (SAI) allocation funds.
• Expands the Principal Autonomy Pilot Program Initiative to a statewide program and authorizes highly effective trained principals to manage multiple district schools.
• Revises requirements for the disbursement of Title I funds by school districts.
• Expands the available exceptions a district school board may adopt to include any other provisions in SREF that limit the ability of a school to operate in a facility on the same basis as a charter school.
• Requires the Florida Department of Education to issue a competitive solicitation to contract with an independent, third-party consulting firm to conduct a review of the current price level index methodology by July 1, 2018, and every 10 years thereafter.

The bill amends several provisions relating to charter schools as follows:

• Provides that, for charter school applications received on or before February 1, the charter school will open 18 months later or at a time agreed to by the applicant (rather than at a time agreed to by the school district and the applicant).
• Provides charter schools with access to surplus property on the same basis as public schools.
• Requires school districts to provide background screening results for charter school employees within 14 days.
• Revises eligibility requirements for high performing charter schools and allows replication of up to two schools.
• Clarifies provisions relating to charter school consolidations.
• Revises requirements for sharing discretionary capital outlay millage revenues with charter schools.
• Prohibits a school district from withholding charter school administrative fees if specified aggregate lease-purchase agreement payments exceed three-fourths of the discretionary millage proceeds.

The bill adds provisions relating to computer science instruction. The bill:

• Defines computer science and includes computer coding and programming in the definition;
• Requires the Florida Department of Education (DOE) to identify computer science courses in the Course Code Directory and on its website by July 1, 2018;
• Requires Florida Virtual School (FLVS) to offer computer science courses so students enrolled in a school without a computer science course can receive computer science instruction;
• Requires school districts to offer students access to computer science courses through FLVS or by other means;
• Establishes, subject to appropriation, a grant program to help teachers earn a computer science educator certificate or industry certification and for paying associated examination fees;
• Establishes, subject to appropriation, a bonus program to award qualifying teachers, on a yearly basis for up to 3 years, who teach computer science courses identified by the DOE; and
• Requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules to implement these provisions.

The bill also requires each school district, by the start of the 2018-2019 school year, to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the collective bargaining unit for instructional personnel that addresses the selection, placement, and expectations of instructional personnel and provides principals with autonomy over certain personnel and budgetary decisions.  [NOTE: There is no direct Senate companion bill, but SB 824 and SB 1056 contain some comparable provisions.]

HB 165 – Threats to Kill or Do Bodily Injury by McClain – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill prohibits a person from:

• Making a threat in a writing or other record, including an electronic record, to kill or do great bodily injury to another person; and
• Posting or transmitting the threat in any manner that would allow another person to view the threat.

In addition, the bill:

• Removes the requirement that the written threat be sent to the person threatened or a member of his or her family.
• Reclassifies the offense as a third degree felony and reduces the offense level from a level 6 to a level 4 on the criminal punishment code scoresheet.

[NOTE: There Senate companion bill – SB 310 – is similar, has passed all committees of reference, and has been placed on the Senate Calendar on 2^nd Reading.]

HB 1019 – Financial Reporting by La Rosa – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill requires counties, municipalities, special districts, water management districts, and school districts to:

• Post annual budgets to their respective websites for two years;
• Post tentative budgets to their websites for 45 days;
• Provide an electronic copy of their budgets to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR), on forms prescribed by the EDR; and
• Provide a copy of their budgets and a certification of timely filing to the clerk of the court.

In addition, the bill:

• Provides that if a local government entity or school district fails to file required reports with the clerk of the court, the clerk must notify the appropriate fiscal officer to withhold salary payments from the head of the local government entity or the superintendent of the school district until the reports are filed.
• Requires all municipalities and special districts to conduct an annual audit.
• Requires the Legislative Auditing Committee to conduct a hearing upon receiving notification from the Auditor General, the Department of Financial Services, the Division of Bond Finance of the State Board of Administration, the Governor, or the Commissioner of Education that a local government entity has failed to file required reports.

[NOTE: There is no direct Senate companion bill.]

HB 947 – Behavioral Health of Minors by Payne – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill implements the recommendations to address the issue of involuntary examination of minors. Specifically, the bill:

• Encourages school districts to adopt a standardized suicide assessment tool that school‐based mental health professionals would implement prior to initiation of an involuntary examination.
• Requires Youth Mental Health First Aid or Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for school resource officers and other law enforcement officers who initiate involuntary examinations from schools.
• Increases the number of days, from the next working day to five working days that the receiving facility has to submit forms to DCF, to allow DCF to capture data on whether the minor was admitted, released, or a petition filed with the court.
• Requires school administrators to notify a student’s parent, guardian, or caregiver before an involuntary examination is initiated and the student is removed from school, school transportation, or a school‐sponsored activity.
• Allows a facility the option of initiating either an assessment by a service provider or the examination within 12 hours for a minor held for an involuntary examination.

[NOTE: There is no direct Senate companion bill.]

HB 977 – Retirement of Instructional and Administrative Personnel by Fine – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill provides that, effective July 1, 2018, instructional personnel who are authorized to extend DROP participation beyond the 60-month period must have a termination date that is the last day of the last calendar month of the school year within the DROP extension granted by the employer. For those employees who have already extended DROP on or before July 1, 2018, the member’s DROP participation may be extended through the last day of the last calendar month of that school year. The employer must notify the division of the change in termination date and the additional period of DROP participation for the affected instructional personnel. In addition, administrative personnel in grades K-12 who have a DROP termination date on or after July 1, 2018, may be authorized to extend DROP participation beyond the initial 60 calendar month period if the administrative personnel’s termination date is before the end of the school year. Such administrative personnel may have DROP participation extended until the last day of the last calendar month of the school year in which their original DROP termination date occurred.  [NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 1240 – is similar and has passed one of three committees of reference.]

HB 63 – Students with Disabilities in Public Schools by Edwards – READ 3^RD TIME; PASSED THE HOUSE; IN MESSAGES TO THE SENATE
The bill amends the use of restraint on students with disabilities. Specifically, the bill:

• Defines terms related to seclusion and restraint.
• Provides that physical restraint may be used only to protect students, school personnel or others, but not for disciplining a student. Restraints should be used only when all other strategies and techniques have been exhausted. A student may only be physically restrained for the time necessary for protection.
• Prohibits certain physical restraint techniques.
• Requires school districts to develop policies and procedures to ensure the physical safety and security of all students and school personnel; and requires that students be treated with dignity and respect.
• Outlines under what circumstances restraint may not be used.
• Describes the circumstance when time-outs may be used and prohibits certain areas.
• Prohibits student from being placed in seclusion.
• Requires the school to review a student’s functional behavioral assessment and individualized behavior intervention plan when a student is placed in time-out, physically restrained or secluded more than twice in a semester.
• Includes emotional and behavioral disabilities in the list of disabilities for which certain school personnel must be trained to identify for early intervention.
• Adds to staff training effective classroom behavior management strategies such as differential reinforcement, precision commands, minimizing attention or access to other reinforcers, and time-out methods.
• Directs DOE to publish data and analysis relating to incidents of seclusion and restraint on its website.

[NOTE: The Senate companion bill – SB 260 – is similar, has passed all committees of reference, and has been placed on the Senate Calendar on 2^nd Reading.]

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[toggle title=”Coming up Tomorrow – March 6, 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 will be in Session, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, to consider the following items and others on 3^rd Reading:

HB 1013 – Daylight Saving Time by Nunez
The bill declares the Legislature’s intent to observe DST year-round throughout the entire state if federal law is amended to permit states to take such action.

HB 591 – Missing Persons With Special Needs by Porter
The bill expands Project Leo statewide and permits a Center for Autism and Related Disabilities at any state university to participate in a program providing personal devices to aid search-and-rescue efforts for persons with special needs in the case of elopement. The bill also removes the requirement that each participating center submit a preliminary and final report to the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President of the Senate. Lastly, the bill extends the project to June 30, 2019.

The House will be in Session, 10:30 am – completion of business, to consider the following items and others on 2^nd Reading:

SB 7026 – Public Safety by Rules
The bill addresses the crisis of gun violence, including but not limited to, gun violence on school campuses. The bill provides law enforcement and the courts 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, and by promoting school safety and enhanced coordination between education and law enforcement entities at the state and local level.

With regard to keeping firearms out of the hands of those suffering from mental illness, the bill:

• 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 from the person for 24 hours after the person is released and does not have a risk protection order against them or is the subject of a firearm disability.
• 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.
• 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, and:
  • Allows a court to issue a risk protection order for up to 12 months.
  • Requires the surrender of all firearms and ammunition if a risk protection order is issued.
  • Provides a process for a risk protection order to be vacated or extended.

With regard to firearms, the bill:

• Requires a three-day waiting period for all firearms (rather than only for handguns) or until the background check is completed, whichever is later.
• Provides exceptions for the purchase of all firearms for concealed weapons permit holders, and, for the purchase of firearms other than handguns, provides an exception for:
  • Individuals who have completed a 16 hour hunter safety course; or
  • Law enforcement officers, correctional officers and service members (military and national guard)
• Prohibits a person under 21 years of age from purchasing a firearm and prohibits licensed firearm dealers, importers, and manufacturers, from selling a firearm, except in the case of a member of the military, or a law enforcement or correctional officer when purchasing a rifle or shotgun. (Persons under 21 years of age are already prohibited from purchasing a handgun under federal law.)
• Prohibits a bump-fire stock from being imported, transferred, distributed, sold, keeping for sale, offering for sale, possessing, or giving away within the state.

With regard to improving school safety, the bill:

• Establishes the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission 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 within the Florida Department of Education (DOE) and which will service as a central repository for the best practices, training standards, and compliance regarding school safety and security.
• Authorizes the sheriff, if he/she so chooses, to establish a Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program to aid in the prevention or abatement of active assailant incidents on school premises.
  • The school district may participate in the Guardian Program if it is available in their county and school employees may volunteer to participate in the necessary training.
  • Individuals who exclusively perform classroom duties as classroom teachers as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a) are excluded from participation in the Guardian Program.
  • A school guardian has no authority to act in any law enforcement capacity except to the extent necessary to prevent or abate an active assailant incident on a school premises.
  • School employees who volunteer to participate in the Guardian Program must:
    • Hold a valid license to carry a concealed weapon issued under s. 790.06, F.S.
    • Complete 132 total hours of comprehensive firearm safety and proficiency training conducted by Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission-certified instructors.
    • Pass a psychological evaluation
    • Submit to and pass an initial drug test and subsequent random drug tests.
    • Successfully complete ongoing training, weapon inspection, and firearm qualification on at least an annual basis.
    • Successfully complete at least 12 hours of a certified nationally recognized diversity training program.
• 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.
• 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 school safety specialists and a threat assessment team at each school, and requires the team to operate under the district school safety specialist’s direction.
• Requires the DOE to contract for the development of a Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool which will assist school districts in conducting security assessments to identify threats and vulnerabilities.
• Creates the mental health assistance allocation to assist school districts in establishing or expanding school-based mental health care.

The bill also:

• Provides that the cost per student station also does not include the cost for securing entries, checkpoint construction, lighting specifically designed for entry point security, security cameras, automatic locks and locking devices, electronic security systems, fencing designed to prevent intruder entry into a building, bullet-proof glass, or other capital construction items approved by the school safety specialist to ensure building security for new educational, auxiliary, or ancillary facilities and specifies that the costs for these items must be below 2% per student station.
• Prohibits a person from making, posting, or transmitting a threat to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.
• Requires DCF to contract for community action treatment teams to provider behavioral health and support services.
• Requires FDLE to procure a mobile app that would allow students and the community to relay information anonymously concerning unsafe, dangerous threats. The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglass recommended that the program be named “FortifyFL”

The legislation appropriates $400 million to implement the bill provisions, including the following:

• Over $69 million to the DOE to fund the mental health assistance allocation;
• $1 million for the design and construction of a memorial honoring those who lost their lives on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
• Over $25 million for replacing building 12 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
• Over $67 million for sheriff’s offices who decide to establish a school marshal program.
• Over $97 million for the safe schools allocation.
• Over $98 million to implement a grant program for improving and hardening the physical security of school buildings.
• $18.3 million to DCF for additional mobile crisis teams to ensure reasonable access among all counties.

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 four or more people, other than the perpetrator, are severely injured or killed by an intentional and indiscriminate act of violence. A victim is considered to be a person killed or injured during an incident of mass violence.

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:

• Exemptions from public records requirements for the identity of a reporting party and any information received through the mobile suspicious activity reporting tool which is held by the Department of Law Enforcement, law enforcement agencies, or school officials.
• Exemption from public meetings requirements for portions of meetings of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission at which exempt or confidential and exempt information is discussed.
• Exemption from public records requirements for information that would identify whether a particular individual has been appointed as a safe-school officer.

HB 1197 – Prearrest Diversion Programs by Ahern
The bill establishes a model prearrest diversion program that local entities may, but are not mandated to, adopt. In implementing such a program, representatives from local law enforcement agencies, the program services provider, the public defender, the state attorney, and the clerk of the court, in consultation with other interested stakeholders, have wide latitude to develop the program, including defining eligibility criteria, program implementation and operation, and fees, if any. The bill also expands eligibility criteria for juvenile diversion program expunction. The bill makes participants in all types of juvenile diversion programs eligible for expunction. The individual programs no longer have the discretion to specify whether expunction is available, and a minor who completes any diversion program for any misdemeanor is eligible. The bill requires the diversion programs to submit data regarding participants and nonparticipants in diversion programs to the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), which must compile and publish the data on its website.

HB 323 – Education/High School Graduation Requirements by Fitzenhagen
The bill eliminates financial literacy instruction from the one-half credit economics requirement and establishes a one-half credit financial literacy course as an additional elective. The one-half credit financial literacy course must include topics such as opening and managing a bank account; balancing a checkbook; completing a loan application; computing federal income taxes; simple contracts; types of savings and investments; and state and federal finance laws.

The bill increases fiscal transparency of educational spending by requiring:

• school boards to provide financial efficiency data and fiscal trend information;
• the Department of Education to develop a web-based tool that identifies schools and districts with high academic achievement based on per pupil expenditures; and
• school boards to provide a full explanation of, and approve, any budget amendment at the board’s next public meeting.

The bill increases fiscal accountability of school districts by:

• requiring school districts with revenues over $500 million to employ an internal auditor;
• requiring school districts with low ending fund balances to reduce administrative costs and other expenditures;
• requiring districts with financial emergency conditions to withhold the salaries of certain superintendents and school board members until the emergency is addressed;
• requiring an investigation of school districts who are unable to timely pay current debts and liabilities;
• clarifying that the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General must investigate allegations and reports of fraud and abuse from certain government officials;
• requiring school districts with previous operational audit findings to initiate and complete corrective action within a certain period of time;
• aligning school board member salaries with beginning teacher salaries or the amount calculated by statute; and
• requiring prior school board approval for reimbursement of certain out-of-district travel expenses.

The bill also requires instructional and administrative personnel, who extend the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) participation beyond the 60-month period, to have a termination date that is the last day of the school year within the DROP extension.

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