Special legislative session: A special legislative session that could get contentious begins today at 10:30 a.m. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the session to support President Trump’s immigration initiatives, but ran into resistance from leaders of the Senate and House who criticized it as “premature.” Among the 11 bills filed for consideration are ones eliminating in-state college tuition for undocumented students and making changes in the way citizens-led constitutional initiatives, such as for limiting school class sizes, can be placed on future ballots. Politico Florida. News Service of Florida. WFSU. USA Today Florida Network. Orlando Sentinel. Central Florida Public Media. While Florida’s Education Department said last week that it will comply with a new federal directive allowing immigration enforcement into schools, the state’s existing rules place restrictions on how districts can track the immigration status of students. Palm Beach Post.
Around the state: Tampa Bay schools’ students test scores declined from last year and officials are blaming class time lost to a pair of hurricanes last fall, Bay schools announce their teacher of the year, about 61,000 tickets costing $225 each were issued in just three Florida counties in 10 months last year, when the main graduation venue was damaged by a hurricane the Pinellas school district asked its seniors for alternatives, and a Brevard County principal and teacher are arrested after throwing a house party with alcohol that about 100 teenagers attended. Here are details about those stories and others from the state’s districts, private schools, and colleges and universities:
Tampa Bay area: Mid-year testing results for students in Pinellas and Pasco shows declined from last year, and educators in both districts are blaming the class time lost to a pair of hurricanes. Hillsborough has not yet gotten its results, but also expects a dropoff in performance. Tampa Bay Times. When Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg last October, it also forced the Pinellas County School District to make new plans on where to hold graduation ceremonies. But instead of simply choosing new venues, district officials asked high school seniors for their opinions. Most schools settled on the 4,000-seat BayCare Sound in Clearwater, though larger schools will hold ceremonies at the Yuengling Center at the University of South Florida in Tampa and the smallest schools opted for Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Tampa Bay Times.
Polk: Vaccination rates for district kindergarten students fell from 96.3% in 2021 to 93.2% in 2023. The rate in Florida is 90.6%, which also is down from 94.1% in 2017. Most experts blame the decline on the pandemic and increasing skepticism about vaccines. Lakeland Ledger.
Brevard: The principal and a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School in Cocoa Beach were arrested last week after a party Jan. 19 at the principal’s home, where many of the 100 teenagers in attendance were drinking alcohol. Police said the principal, 47-year-old Elizabeth Hill-Brodigan, and teacher Kathy Anderson, 45, were charged with child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. District officials said both have been placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation. Florida Today. Space Coast Daily. WOFL. WKMG. WESH. Orlando Sentinel.
Osceola: Construction has begun on a $184 million high school in St. Cloud that’s expected to relieve overcrowding at nearby schools. When it opens in the fall of 2026, it could be home for up to 2,522 students in its 11 buildings. WKMG.
Santa Rosa: The school district is one of five selected by the state as Purple Star school districts. It joins Bay, Brevard, Citrus and Okaloosa as districts honored for helping students in military families transition to new schools. Pensacola News Journal.
Bay: Erin Lange, who teaches science and agriculture at Surfside Middle School in Panama City Beach, has been named the school district’s teacher of the year. Also honored at last week’s ceremony were Stefanie Gall, who received the educator of a lifetime award for her 45-year career in education, and Eduardo Anastacio, who was chosen as the support employee of the year. WMBB. WJHG.
Hendry: Weapons detection systems will be installed at every district elementary school, starting the week of Feb. 3. Middle and high schools already have such systems. WFTX.
Colleges and universities: Indian River State College officials are considering starting a charter school district. The first step will be hiring a superintendent, and then it will begin seeking companies to submit proposals. IRSC is the third college to be given the authority by the state to approve charter schools. It already operates the Clark Advanced Learning Center and Indiantown High School charter schools in Martin County. TCPalm.
The ticket toll: More than 61,000 drivers from just three counties were ticketed for illegally passing stopped school buses between January and October 2024, according to the state’s first quarterly report on the program created with a law that went into effect in 2023. That amounts to more than $14 million in fines collected in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough and Santa Rosa counties. WFTS.
Around the nation: Is it constitutional for taxpayer funds to be directed by a state to a religious charter school? The U.S. Supreme Court could settle the issue after agreeing to review an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that called it a violation of the part of the First Amendment prohibiting the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” Associated Press. Politico. New York Times. Education Week. Chalkbeat. K-12 Dive. Previous U.S. Department of Education guidance stating that school districts could violate civil rights law by implementing book bans has been rescinded. Removing “age-inappropriate” books is a parental and community decision and therefore the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights “has no role in these matters,” the department said in a statement issued Friday. K-12 Dive. Florida Politics. Personal data of more than 60 millions K-12 students in the country, including 2.5 million in Florida, were hacked in a data security breach of PowerSchool, a provider of cloud-based education software. The Hill.
Opinions on schools: In its third era, public education aspires to expand equal opportunity by helping families and educators provide every student with an effective and efficient customized education through an effective and efficient public education market. We cannot achieve this aspiration without successfully implementing education savings accounts. Doug Tuthill, NextSteps. There are often enticing little subplots and sidebar stories when the Florida Legislature meets, and the special session Gov. Ron DeSantis called for beginning today has two intriguing side bets that you won’t find on the printed calendars of the House or Senate. Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat. The Florida Legislature is not in the habit of telling the governor no. But this special session would be a good place to start if it wants to assert itself as a deliberative body again. Mark Lane, Daytona Beach News-Journal.