Governor Rick Scott signed a wide-ranging, education-focused bill into a law on Thursday, April 14. The bill, HB 7029, touches virtually on every level of public education within the state of Florida.
The new law will allow students to attend a school in a surrounding county next school year, as long as there is space available and a parent or guardian provides transportation to the school. The law also adds performance-funding formulas for colleges and universities and allows private schools to join the Florida High School Athletic Association or other organizations on a sport-by-sport basis. Thanks to the law, charter schools that serve lower-income students or disabled students will be able to receive more state funding.
HB 7029 requires districts to provide information on their websites as to which of their schools can accommodate transfer students. These transfer students can remain at the new school through its highest grade.
"This is great for students across Florida as Governor Scott signs into law [the] historic legislation to increase school choice options across our K-12 education system by allowing parents to have a greater say regarding which of our neighborhood public schools their child will attend," said Senate Education Appropriations Chairman Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who handled the bill in the Senate.
School choice advocates say that the new law will give parents more options to select the best schools for their children, but critics believe this new law could harm districts that have low performing schools, such as Madison County. Critics argue that the new law could also reduce the value of local school taxes and disrupt school districts’ improvement plans.
Madison County's current transfer policy states that all students, unless otherwise provided by the school board's order, “shall attend the school serving the student's residential attendance zone.” Students wishing to transfer to a school outside of their residential attendance zone must file with the school superintendent and the school board must approve the request.
If a student changes residence from one attendance zone to another during the school year, the student will be reassigned by the superintendent to the new zone. If the change of residence occurs after the beginning of a school year, the student will be allowed to stay at their original school until the completion of said school year, at which time the student will be reassigned to their new school in their new attendance zone. Any student whose residence is changed during the school year is permitted to remain in the school that the student was assigned to before the change of residence will be required to get their own transportation.
However, the county does not permit any students to cross district lines for the purpose of attending school outside of the district, except under a written agreement as provided in Florida Statutes. If a parent is employed full-time out-of-district, the board will consider allowing his/her child to attend a school that is out of district, but evidence of employment is required. Transportation for a child who attends school outside of the district will be the parent's responsibility. A student may transfer out of county if they are not receiving adequate education in their county, if they are facing a hardship out of the student's and parent's control that has a negative impact on the student's educational process or if the out-of-county request is based on physical or mental health.
Governor Scott also signed a handful of other education measures, including HB 7019, which is aimed at holding down higher-education costs by pushing textbook affordability measures and repealing a law that allows the Florida Board of Governors to give individual universities' boards of trustees the ability to increase graduate tuition; HB 287, which establishes how education for homebound and hospitalized students should be handled and HB1305M which deals with emergency allergy treatments in schools.