Florida School Boards Association
Florida School Boards Association
Republican Sen. Don Gaetz wants to the Office of Vocational Rehab to do better when it comes to placing people with disabilities in jobs. Monday the Senate’s Higher Education Committee approved a bill requiring vocational rehabilitation to develop a performance improvement plan and submit an annual report card to the Governor and legislature. “Most of…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — National and state advocates are pushing new legislation that would require suicide prevention training for public school teachers after a similar law was repealed as part of Gov. Rick Scott’s 2011 budget cuts. This week, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Florida Suicide Prevention Coalition plan to hold a vigil at…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — In the past five years, the Florida Legislature has taken $1 billion away from teacher salaries, early education programs and other educational programs to shore up a leaky school construction and maintenance fund. They’re poised to take millions more away this year because the main source for school construction money — a 2.5 percent…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — Charter schools continue to blossom in popularity and in number throughout Florida, but the controversy surrounding them isn’t dissipating in 2016 — especially as “school choice” continues to dominate education policy coming out of the state Capitol. As Republican lawmakers consider plans to make it easier for charter schools to form and also…
DetailsAmid heated debate over what Florida Standards Assessment levels mean, the Florida Department of Education has offered up a revamped student score report. It aims to make more clear exactly what a Level 1 through Level 5 mark represents, commissioner Pam Stewart told State Board of Education members Wednesday. “It’s not just a number,” Stewart said,…
DetailsAn issue that has bedeviled dozens of counties across Florida — including Miami-Dade and Broward — returns to the spotlight this legislative session thanks to a Clearwater senator who has filed a bill that would fix a shamefully inequitable state mandate. In 2004, the Florida Legislature forced 38 counties to pay a portion of the…
DetailsWith two votes Wednesday, the State Board of Education put to bed a lengthy, heated debate over how difficult Florida’s student testing and school grading formulas should be. Board members made it harder to get a passing score on the tests, and easier for a school to earn an A, just weeks before students begin…
DetailsFresh off a year spent snared in gridlock over redistricting and the state budget, the Florida Legislature returns Tuesday for its annual 60-day session with fresh optimism that it will restore harmony to the process and put a halt to taxpayer-funded overtime. The session, set two months earlier than normal, is expected to open with…
DetailsAS HE OFTEN DOES WHEN DISCUSSING the merits of education bills before the Legislature, state Sen. Don Gaetz is drawing heavily on his days as a school board member and district superintendent from 1994 to 2006. “For way too long, children with intellectual and physical disabilities have been pushed to the margins of education,” he…
DetailsBRADENTON — School impact fees will be collected in April for the first time since 2009 after Manatee County Commission voted 5-2 on Thursday to allow the Manate Conty School Board to reinstate them. School impact fees are collected on new residential development, and can only be used for projects related to building new schools…
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