Education

LEGISLATION THAT PASSED 

School Teacher Training and Mentoring Program –  SB 182 establishes a mentoring program for retired or current classroom teachers to support new or struggling teachers in schools with low performance grades. Mentors are required to have at least three years of experience and a highly effective rating and the bill allows them to receive a stipend and mentor multiple teachers. SB 182 passed the full Senate. The House added an unrelated amendment to require cursive writing and reading instruction in grades 2-5 and to mandate the display of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln portraits, subject to funding, at each public school. The Senate amended that amendment to require cursive reading and writing instruction in grades 3-5 and establish proficiency standards, prohibit dismissing charter students for academic performance during mandatory school improvement or corrective action, and allow small private schools to operate in a commercial or mixed-use zoning district without rezoning or obtaining a special exception. The House concurred.

Higher Education “Train” – HB 1279 is large bill with many provisions that grew significantly late in the session, as parts of other bills were grafted on to it. Originally dealing with public postsecondary education, the bill now has provisions related to pre-kindergarten, K-12, and higher education.  Controversial provisions limiting non-Florida residents to five percent of full-time students at the state’s preeminent universities and international students from one country to five percent of all non-resident students at state universities were removed from the bill before final passage. Provisions in the final bill include authorizing bonus funds for school districts and teachers for students’ successful completion of advanced courses and tests. The bill expands the definition of an educational emergency to include persistently low-performing schools, allowing school boards to exercise authority over personnel contracts in the selection, placement, and compensation of teachers. Other measure impact virtual instruction and school choice, early learning, student support, financial aid, postsecondary governance, and more. For a list of all provisions, see this summary. The House passed its version, the Senate amended it with most of their language with additions, and the House agreed.

Applied Algebra Course – HB 1279 requires that applied algebra courses are part of mathematics pathways and requires the development of applied algebra courses that integrate Algebra 1 standards with career and technical education standards. New secondary mathematics pathways would be identified by September 1, 2026, each incorporating newly created applied algebra courses aligned to specific career clusters and building on real-world algebraic applications. Districts would implement this for the 2029-30 school year. These provisions were in SB 920, but it stalled after passing a committee. However, the Senate included it in the final amendment to HB 1279 and the House concurred.

Excess Tax Credit Scholarship Funds – SB 1318 clarifies that when a student’s Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program account has been closed, the remaining funds in the scholarship account must revert, but do not revert to the state. This ensures the money will still be available for scholarships. The House did not take the bill up, but the Senate successfully attached it to SB 182 in the waning days of the session.

Educator Certifications – HB 561 will streamline reinstatement for educators with expired professional certificates, providing teachers with a faster and less expensive process for returning to the classroom. The bills require the Department of Education (DOE) to issue a temporary certification so educators with expired certificates can continue teaching while earning their required credits, removing cost barriers to educators and helping increase the active workforce. They also remove the requirement for educators to pass subject area exams for each subject on their certificate for a second time. The newly created Florida Center for Teaching Excellence will offer professional learning, at no cost, to certified educators seeking to renew or reinstate their certificate. In Week 8, the Senate took up HB 561, substituted it for the identical SB 1718 and passed it unanimously.

High School Graduation Requirements – HB 453 allows students to satisfy both the physical education and performing arts requirements by completing two years of marching band. It also permits students with disabilities to fulfill the physical education requirement by participating in the Special Olympics for one school year. In addition, HB 1279 authorizes a qualifying one-credit dance techniques course to satisfy a physical education or performing arts credit.

LEGISLATION THAT DID NOT PASS

Administrative Efficiency in Public Schools – SB 320 was a wide-ranging bill that aimed to streamline administrative processes for public schools and revise requirements for teacher certifications and contracts, district budget transparency, and facilities management. The many provisions included increasing flexibility for district use of the discretionary property tax levy by authorizing operational or capital spending and removing expenditure restrictions and penalties. The full Senate passed SB 320 in Week 2.  See the complete list of provisions here. The House had an identical bill (HB 963), but it never moved. Another example from this session of one chamber passing a priority bill early, only to be ignored by the other chamber.

School Choice Scholarship Reform – SB 318, in part, addressed issues identified in an operational audit by the Auditor General, which found that during implementation of the program, “whatever could go wrong has gone wrong.” The bill would have created a dedicated categorical for the Family Empowerment Scholarships in the state’s school funding formula. It would reduce the scholarship administration fee to fund more scholarships. It also increased oversight to reduce fraud and ensure the money follows the student. The Senate unanimously passed the bill early in the session. More information here. There was no similar bill in the House, so they did not take it up.

Public School Personnel Compensation – SB 1216 would have expanded cost-of-living salary adjustments to more public school employees, including prekindergarten teachers, noninstructional staff, and school administrators. It removed the previous 50% limitation on cost-of-living adjustments and clarifies that districts may provide additional salary increases from other funding sources. The bill broadened the criteria for using advanced degrees in salary schedules by permitting use of degrees in a related field or with at least 18 credit hours relevant to the employee’s assignment. SB 1216  passed the Senate, but the House did not take it up.

Tech Education – HB 1503 would have required general education core courses that integrate technology to include instruction on artificial intelligence and digital literacy and competency and, when applicable to the subject matter of the course, robotics, software engineering, computer networks, database systems, and cyber security. It requires high school computer science courses to include foundational instruction on artificial intelligence, covering data usage, benefits and risks, and ethical considerations. Language was removed that would have required additional educator certificate coverage areas for computer science (grades K-5) and computer science (grades 6-12), while maintaining the existing computer science (grades K-12) coverage area. After passing the House, the Senate amended it to remove the provision mentioned above. The House amended the amendment to add the K-12 provision back and asked the Senate to concur. It didn’t.

Education – SB 7036 is another bill with many education provisions, some of which were in other bills. It expanded K-12 educational flexibility, supported new mathematics pathways, updated teacher preparation, and removed restrictions to improve academic success across Florida’s public and private schools. SB 7036 passed its second committee after controversial provisions giving school districts authority to use of temporary door-locking devices and to purchase certain instructional materials developed by or under the direction of the state were removed. SB 7036 made it to Special Order, but after it was postponed four times it died. The House did not have a similar bill, but several of the provisions were in other bills that the House advanced.