CEO Message
By Bill Montford, FADSS CEO
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Shout Out to FADSS 2022 - 2023 Business Partners
The month of June not only marks the end of the school year, but it also signifies the end of the partnership year for FADSS annual business partners. As you know, FADSS business partner program is a primary revenue source that supports our organization’s programs, trainings, and professional development opportunities.
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Reduce Regulation to Achieve True Educational Choice
By David Sikes, FADSS Associate Executive Officer
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Florida has made a very clear decision on the future of education. With the passage of HB 1 (2023), that future is one in which every parent has an abundance of state-funded educational opportunities, regardless of family income or personal circumstances. Every parent has an equal opportunity to receive a state-funded education based on the needs of their child.
While access to a state-funded education choice has become universal, the state’s education laws and regulations continue to apply primarily to only one education delivery model – district-managed public schools. Accountability and oversight have purposefully been handed to parents for any student utilizing an education savings account (ESA). Charter schools are explicitly exempted from most of the K-12 Education Code, albeit with some notable exceptions.
Conversely, district-managed public schools are subject to hundreds of pages of statutory requirements along with several hundred State Board of Education rules. Many of these requirements served a purpose at one time, but times have changed, and so has the landscape of Florida’s education opportunities.
Education has shifted significantly over the past 20 years, and many believe this change is long overdue. We now live in an era in which a parent can make nearly any educational choice they want for their child and change that decision based on their experience and satisfaction. However, what is also long overdue is the recognition that district-managed public schools are a legitimate choice, and that they are the choice selected by most parents statewide. The choice of a parent to send their child to a district-managed public school should carry the same merit, and deserves the same recognition as any other school choice option. As such, school districts should be empowered with the same autonomy afforded to other state-funded educational options.
House Bill 1 recognizes the discrepancy in Florida’s oversight and regulation of its various choice options and mandates that the State Board of Education develop recommendations to deregulate public schools. Specifically, the law requires the State Board of Education to develop and recommend repeals and revisions to the Florida Early Learning-20 Education Code, in its entirety, to reduce regulation of public schools. In other words, it is time to recognize and respect a parent’s right to choose any of the education options available in Florida, not just those choices that require removing a child from a district-managed public school.
None of this is meant to suggest that there is not a role for lawmakers or the Florida Department of Education (DOE). The Legislature should set a wide range of statewide requirements and priorities for what is expected in our public education system - from school safety requirements to standardized graduation requirements to statewide curriculum standards. The DOE should always be a resource for districts in providing technical assistance and the sharing of best practices, data trends, and other ways to help districts serve their students.
But school districts should be allowed to serve the students who choose to enter their school doors in innovative, effective, and efficient ways as determined by local decision-makers. Parents retain the right to make a different choice based on their experience and satisfaction – just like parents choosing to utilize an ESA, just like parents choosing to home educate, and just like parents choosing a charter option.
Florida will never truly be an educational choice state as long as only one educational delivery model bears the brunt of excessively prescriptive oversight and regulation, while all other delivery models are free to educate students as they determine best. HB1 clearly states that it is time to reduce regulation of public schools. Let local school districts, who know the students and families they serve, make the important decisions on how to best operate their schools and educate their students. Parents will decide if those decisions are right for their child.
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Summer Implementation Time
By Brian Moore, FADSS General Counsel
In a more perfect world, school district personnel would use the summer break to catch their breath, analyze data from the previous year, and make some minor adjustments to fine tune operations for the upcoming school year. However, with the number of new laws enacted by the Legislature and rules adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) each year, school districts in Florida instead spend the summer break figuring out how to implement brand new requirements while simultaneously overhauling other major programs in response to all the annual changes.
In the most recent legislative session, over 50 new laws were passed that will affect school districts, and the State Board of Education has adopted about 100 new or amended rules during this school year, with 31 more in the pipeline for possible adoption in July. FADSS staff is nearing completion of its annual legislative session summary to help districts with this summer implementation process, but we will also use our newsletter to highlight recent changes to law or rule that require more immediate action.
For example, school district personnel need to review newly-adopted Rule 6A-7.0714, F.A.C., which the SBE approved on May 24, 2023. The rule will not take effect officially until late June, but it includes a book objection form that must be completed and submitted by June 30, 2023, and then annually thereafter. As a result, district staff need to start gathering this information now. For each objection, the district will need to complete the specified, electronic form and report, if applicable: 1) the Type of Material (instructional or other); 2) Title; 3) Author; 4) ISBN; 5) Grade Level; 6) Course Name; 7) Course Number; 8) Basis for Objection (pornographic, harmful to minors, not suited to student needs and ability to comprehend, inappropriate for grade level and age group, fails to meet criteria of section 1006.31(2), or other); 9) School District Action (removed, access limited, did not remove, or pending); and 10) the Basis for School District Action. Some of the responses may require a narrative explanation, so this will not be a quick process for those districts that have seen 100 or more challenges this year. The electronic form will be available on the DOE’s Instructional Media website, and it will look like this example provided at the SBE meeting.
Looking at recently enacted laws, there are several that address social media and other online applications that will keep district IT personnel and network administrators busy this summer and throughout the year. HB 379 (Chapter 23-36, Laws of Florida) requires districts to restrict student access to social media platforms from district devices and servers and specifically prohibits any access to TikTok. Similarly, SB 258 (Ch. 23-32) requires all government entities to block certain prohibited applications from foreign countries of concern. The Department of Management Services will publish and maintain a list of prohibited applications, which should start with the adoption of an emergency rule within 30 days of July 1, 2023. Districts will need to be on the lookout for that list and prepared to make any necessary changes to network filters. It may also require accessing thousands of devices issued to students and staff members, if any necessary software needs to be installed or updated or any prohibited applications need to be removed, as the law requires that prohibited applications be removed within 15 days of publication of the list. District teams should be assessing their ability to make all these necessary changes now, as the list of prohibited applications may come within a couple weeks of the start of school.
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Education Tidbits
By Katrina Figgett, FADSS Director of Training
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Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025
The PISA is designed to measure the ability of 15-year-olds to use their reading, mathematics, and science knowledge and skills to meet real life challenges, with each administration of the test focused on a rotating domain of study. Since 2000, there have been 8 administrations of the PISA involving more than 90 countries and 3 million students worldwide. In 2022, 83 countries, including the United States (and Florida students), participated in PISA. The 2022 test focused on mathematics with an additional test on creative thinking; the main data release for the 2022 test will be in December this year.
Work on PISA 2025 is already well underway. The focus this time around will be on science and include a new optional assessment on foreign language learning, as well as the innovative domain of Learning in the Digital World which aims to measure students’ ability to engage in self-regulated learning while using digital tools.
The 2025 assessment aims to answer the questions: do we teach young people the science skills that matter? and, do young people leave school with the scientific understanding they need to make an informed decision about how to deal with environmental changes, health risks, and other challenges that require personal action?
Oxford University Press and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are conducting a webinar to launch the PISA 2025 Science Framework. The webinar will feature an expert panel conversation, bringing together some of the experts behind the Framework and other leading figures in the science education community, to explore issues related to science and sustainability. The details are below - note that the webinar is on Paris time (six hours ahead of EDT)
Free webinar:
Thursday 15 June 2023, 13:00 Paris time.
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Generative AI Risks and Harms – The Role of Platforms and Users
Generative AI is revolutionizing the way that content is created as user-friendly tools have made their way into the hands of the masses around the world. The possibilities seem endless, and their application may impact almost every sector of society. Since the beginning of time, though, every novel technology suffused with promise also provides an opportunity for misuse and abuse by those so inclined. But how can we reduce or even avoid victimization? Do standard recommendations related to internet safety and security apply here as well? Are there fresh methods and approaches we should adopt to address these new harms? And what are the responsibilities of the major stakeholders in this conversation?
Dr. Hinduja is a renowned author and expert on teens and social media use and was the keynote speaker at FADSS 2023 Spring Conference.
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Thank you to FADSS 2022 - 2023
Annual Business Partners
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Florida Association of District School Superintendents
208 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301
850.577.5784
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Be sure to follow FADSS on Twitter [@PublicSchoolSup] and tag FADSS in your district tweets so we can share the great stories and happenings in Florida public schools across our state!
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