March 17, 2025
We have completed week 2 of the 9 weeks of the Florida Legislative Session. This past week saw some bills continue to move while some bills were heard in their first committee stop.
Our team at GrayRobinson is once again providing us with our bill tracker.All of the bills we are tracking are listed on the report in numerical order. Bills that align to our platform are highlighted in yellow. A few of the bills to highlight:
- SB 296 Middle School High School Start Times by Sen. Bradley would repeal the required implementation of 8am start for middle school and 8:30 am for high school by July 1, 2026. This bill was heard in its second committee stop in Senate Appropriations Prek-12. It passed with overwhelming support.
- SB 166 Administrative Efficiency in Public Schools by Sen. Simon continues the deregulation work started last year. This bill once again changes the graduation requirements to using the ELA assessment and Algebra I EOC to counting for 30% of the total grade, permanently removes the cost per student station and makes adjustments to teacher evaluations. The bill passed its second committee unanimously this week.
- HB 1403/SB 1470 School Safety by Rep. Yeager and Sen. Burgess works to address the concerns from the implementation of last year’s HB 1473 School Safety bill including providing some flexibility regarding the keeping unlocked of some doors/gates. The Senate bill also would create and maintain a list of approved exemptions. Both bills were heard in their respective first committee stop with unanimous support.
- SB 802 Term Limits for Members of the Boards of County Commissions and District School Boards by Sen. Ingoglia would place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2026 to implement term limits for county commissioners and would move the school board members term limits to the constitution instead of being in statute. This bill was scheduled to be heard in committee last week but was temporarily postponed. However, it is back on the committee agenda for Monday, March 17 at 1:30pm.
