Bill Text: FL S1360 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Education Funding

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2013-05-03 - Died in Education [S1360 Detail]

Download: Florida-2013-S1360-Introduced.html
       Florida Senate - 2013                                    SB 1360
       
       
       
       By Senator Sobel
       
       
       
       
       33-00434B-13                                          20131360__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to education funding; providing a
    3         short title; amending s. 1008.331, F.S.; providing
    4         that a person must be a state-approved supplemental
    5         educational services provider to offer supplemental
    6         educational services in this state; providing
    7         requirements for applying to be a state-approved
    8         supplemental educational services provider;
    9         prohibiting certain persons from being a supplemental
   10         educational services provider or from continuing to
   11         offer supplemental educational services; providing
   12         that the service designations be based on student
   13         learning gains, progress reports, and students’ report
   14         cards; requiring the Department of Education to create
   15         an external complaint procedure in which parents or a
   16         public school may file with the school district a
   17         complaint against a state-approved supplemental
   18         educational services provider; requiring the
   19         department’s supplemental educational services program
   20         to undergo an annual audit; amending s. 1011.62, F.S.;
   21         requiring each school district to use funding for
   22         supplemental academic instruction to provide summer
   23         school programs for certain students in kindergarten
   24         through grade 12; providing an effective date.
   25  
   26  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   27  
   28         Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Student
   29  Advancement Act.”
   30         Section 2. Section 1008.331, Florida Statutes, is amended
   31  to read:
   32         1008.331 Supplemental educational services in Title I
   33  schools; school district, provider, and department
   34  responsibilities.—
   35         (1) REQUIREMENTS.—A person may not offer supplemental
   36  educational services pursuant to this section unless he or she
   37  is a state-approved supplemental educational services provider.
   38         (a) A person who applies to the department to be a state
   39  approved supplemental educational services provider shall:
   40         1. Submit to the department an application.
   41         2. Undergo a level 2 background screening pursuant to
   42  chapter 435. The cost of the background screening is paid by the
   43  applicant.
   44         (b)A person who applies to the department to be a state
   45  approved supplemental educational services provider or receives
   46  any profits from a state-approved supplemental educational
   47  services provider may not have been convicted of any of the
   48  following offenses designated in the Florida Statutes, a similar
   49  offense in another jurisdiction, or a similar offense committed
   50  in this state which has been redesignated from a former
   51  provision of the Florida Statutes to one of the following
   52  offenses:
   53         1.Any offense listed in s. 943.0435(1)(a)1., relating to
   54  the registration of an individual as a sexual offender.
   55         2.Section 393.135, relating to sexual misconduct with
   56  certain developmentally disabled clients and the reporting of
   57  such sexual misconduct.
   58         3.Section 394.4593, relating to sexual misconduct with
   59  certain mental health patients and the reporting of such sexual
   60  misconduct.
   61         4.Section 775.30, relating to terrorism.
   62         5.Section 782.04, relating to murder.
   63         6.Section 787.01, relating to kidnapping.
   64         7. Section 787.025, relating to luring or enticing a child.
   65         8. Section 794.05, relating to unlawful sexual activity
   66  with certain minors.
   67         9.Any offense under chapter 800, relating to lewdness and
   68  indecent exposure.
   69         10.Section 826.04, relating to incest.
   70         11.Section 827.03, relating to child abuse, aggravated
   71  child abuse, or neglect of a child.
   72         12. Section 827.04, relating to contributing to the
   73  delinquency or dependency of a child.
   74         13. Former s. 827.05, relating to negligent treatment of
   75  children.
   76         14. Section 827.071, relating to sexual performance by a
   77  child.
   78         15. Section 985.701, relating to sexual misconduct in
   79  juvenile justice programs.
   80         16. Any felony offense under:
   81         a.Chapter 812, relating to theft, robbery, and related
   82  crimes.
   83         b.Chapter 831, relating to forgery and counterfeiting.
   84         c.Chapter 832, relating to the issuance of worthless
   85  checks and drafts.
   86         (2)REJECTION OR REMOVAL OF PROVIDERS.—If a person has been
   87  convicted of any of the offenses listed in paragraph (1)(b), the
   88  department:
   89         (a) May not approve the person as a state-approved
   90  supplemental educational services provider; or
   91         (b) Shall immediately and permanently remove the provider
   92  from all state-approved lists of providers.
   93         (3)(1) INCENTIVES.—A provider or school district may not
   94  provide incentives to entice a student or a student’s parent to
   95  choose a provider. After a provider has been chosen, the student
   96  may be awarded incentives for performance or attendance, the
   97  total value of which may not exceed $50 per student per year.
   98         (4)(2) RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCHOOL DISTRICT AND PROVIDER.—
   99         (a) School districts shall must create a streamlined parent
  100  enrollment and provider selection process for supplemental
  101  educational services and ensure that the process enables
  102  eligible students to begin receiving supplemental educational
  103  services no later than October 15 of each school year.
  104         (b) Supplemental educational services enrollment forms must
  105  be made freely available to the parents of eligible students and
  106  providers both before prior to and after the start of the school
  107  year.
  108         (c) School districts shall notify must provide notification
  109  to parents of students eligible to receive supplemental
  110  educational services before prior to and after the start of the
  111  school year. Notification must shall include contact information
  112  for state-approved providers as well as the enrollment form,
  113  clear instructions, and timeline for the selection of providers
  114  and commencement of services.
  115         (d) State-approved supplemental educational services
  116  providers must be able to provide services to eligible students
  117  no later than October 15 of each school year contingent upon
  118  their receipt of their district-approved student enrollment
  119  lists at least 20 days before prior to the start date.
  120         (e) If In the event that the contract with a state-approved
  121  provider is signed less than 20 days before prior to October 15,
  122  the provider shall be afforded no less than 20 days from the
  123  date the contract was executed to begin delivering services.
  124         (f) A school district shall must hold open student
  125  enrollment for supplemental educational services unless or until
  126  it obtains has obtained a written election to receive or reject
  127  services from parents in accordance with paragraph (5)(a)
  128  paragraph (3)(a).
  129         (g) School districts, using the same policies applied to
  130  other organizations that have access to school sites, shall
  131  provide access to school facilities to providers that wish to
  132  use these sites for supplemental educational services. A school
  133  district that has with a student population in excess of 300,000
  134  may only charge a state-approved supplemental educational
  135  services provider facility rental fees for the actual hours that
  136  the classrooms are used for tutoring by the provider.
  137         (5)(3) COMPLIANCE; PENALTIES FOR NONCOMPLIANCE.—
  138         (a) Compliance is met when the school district has obtained
  139  evidence of reception or rejection of services from the parents
  140  of at least a majority of the students receiving free or
  141  reduced-price lunch in Title I schools that are eligible for
  142  parental choice of transportation or supplemental educational
  143  services unless a waiver is granted by the State Board of
  144  Education. A waiver may shall only be granted only if there is
  145  clear and convincing evidence of the district’s efforts to
  146  secure evidence of the parent’s decision. Requirements for
  147  parental election to receive supplemental educational services
  148  may shall not exceed the election requirements for the free and
  149  reduced-price lunch program.
  150         (b) A provider must be able to deliver supplemental
  151  educational services to school districts in which the provider
  152  is approved by the state. If a state-approved provider withdraws
  153  from offering services to students in a school district in which
  154  it is approved and in which it has signed either a contract to
  155  provide services or a letter of intent and the minimums per site
  156  set by the provider have been met, the school district shall
  157  must report the provider to the department. The provider shall
  158  be immediately removed from the state-approved list for the
  159  current school year for that school district. Upon the second
  160  such withdrawal in a given any school district, the provider may
  161  not shall be ineligible to provide services in the state the
  162  following year.
  163         (6)(4) REALLOCATION OF FUNDS.—If a school district has not
  164  spent the required supplemental educational services set-aside
  165  funding, the district may apply to the Department of Education
  166  after January 1 for authorization to reallocate the funds. If
  167  the Commissioner of Education does not approve the reallocation
  168  of funds, the district may appeal to the State Board of
  169  Education. The State Board of Education shall must consider the
  170  appeal within 60 days after of its receipt, and the decision of
  171  the state board is shall be final.
  172         (7)(5) RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.—
  173         (a) By May 1 of each year, each supplemental educational
  174  services provider shall must report to the Department of
  175  Education, unless a prior agreement has been made with the local
  176  school district, in an electronic form prescribed by the
  177  department, the following information regarding services
  178  provided to public school students in the district:
  179         1. Student learning gains as demonstrated by mastery of
  180  applicable benchmarks or access points set forth in the Sunshine
  181  State Standards;
  182         2. Student attendance and completion data;
  183         3. Parent satisfaction survey results;
  184         4. School district satisfaction survey results received
  185  directly from the school district; and
  186         5. Satisfaction survey results received directly from the
  187  school district which were completed by principals in whose
  188  schools onsite supplemental educational services were provided.
  189  
  190  The department shall post a uniform survey on its Internet
  191  website to be completed online by principals and school
  192  districts.
  193         (b) The department shall evaluate each state-approved
  194  provider using the information received pursuant to paragraph
  195  (a) and assign a service designation of excellent, satisfactory,
  196  or unsatisfactory for the prior school year. However, if the
  197  student population served by the provider does not meet the
  198  minimum sample size necessary, based on accepted professional
  199  practice for statistical reliability and the prevention of the
  200  unlawful release of personally identifiable student information,
  201  the provider will not receive a service designation. The State
  202  Board of Education shall specify, by rule, the threshold
  203  requirements for assigning the service designations; however,
  204  the service designations must be based primarily on student
  205  learning gains, progress reports, and students’ report cards. By
  206  July 1 of each year, the department shall must report the
  207  service designation to the supplemental educational services
  208  providers, the school districts, parents, and the public.
  209         (c) The department shall create an external complaint
  210  procedure through which parents or a public school may file with
  211  the school district a complaint against a state-approved
  212  supplemental educational services provider.
  213         1. The school district shall forward to the department each
  214  complaint.
  215         2. The department shall investigate each complaint,
  216  including, but not limited to, complaints that involve
  217  fraudulent billing, misrepresentation, illegal marketing, and
  218  low-quality tutoring.
  219         3. If the department finds that the state-approved
  220  supplemental educational services provider is guilty of
  221  fraudulent billing, misrepresentation, illegal marketing, or
  222  low-quality tutoring, the department shall:
  223         a. Remove the provider from the state-approved list for the
  224  school district in which the provider offered supplemental
  225  educational services and permanently prohibit the provider from
  226  placement on any school district’s state-approved list.
  227         b. Forward the complaint to the local law enforcement
  228  agency in the school district in which the provider offered the
  229  supplemental educational services.
  230         (d)(c) For the 2012-2013 school year, school districts
  231  shall use an amount equivalent to 15 percent of the Title I,
  232  Part A funds allocated to Title I schools to meet the
  233  requirements for supplemental educational services. Supplemental
  234  educational services shall be provided in Title I schools to
  235  students who are performing at Level 1 or Level 2 on the FCAT.
  236  Each school district shall contract with supplemental
  237  educational service providers that have been approved by the
  238  department.
  239         (e)(d) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules
  240  pursuant to ss. 120.536(1) and 120.54 to administer the
  241  provisions of this subsection.
  242         (f)(e) The board’s rules shall establish an internal
  243  complaint procedure to resolve disputes regarding the state
  244  approval process, the termination of state approval, and the
  245  assignment of a service designation. The internal complaint
  246  procedure must provide for an informal review by a hearing
  247  officer who is employed by the department and, if requested, a
  248  formal review by a hearing officer who is employed by the
  249  department, and shall recommend a resolution of the dispute to
  250  the Commissioner of Education. The internal complaint procedure
  251  is exempt from the provisions of chapter 120. The decision by
  252  the commissioner constitutes shall constitute final action.
  253         (g)(f) By September 1, 2011, the department shall approve
  254  and a district may select acceptable premethods and postmethods
  255  for measuring student learning gains, including standardized
  256  assessments, diagnostic assessments, criterion-referenced and
  257  skills-based assessments, or other applicable methods
  258  appropriate for each grade level, for use by supplemental
  259  educational services providers and local school districts in
  260  determining student learning gains. Each method must be able to
  261  measure student progress toward mastering the benchmarks or
  262  access points set forth in the Sunshine State Standards and the
  263  student’s supplemental educational services plan. The use of a
  264  diagnostic and assessment instrument, which is aligned to a
  265  provider’s curriculum, is an acceptable premethod and postmethod
  266  if the provider can demonstrate that the assessment meets the
  267  requirements in this paragraph and is not deemed unreliable or
  268  invalid by the department.
  269         (h)(g) As a condition for state approval, a provider shall
  270  must use a method for measuring student learning gains which
  271  results in reliable and valid results as approved by the
  272  department.
  273         (i)(h) The provider shall report data on individual student
  274  learning gains to the department, unless a prior agreement has
  275  been made with the local school district to report such student
  276  achievement data. The report must include individual student
  277  learning gains as demonstrated by mastery of applicable
  278  benchmarks or access points set forth in the Sunshine State
  279  Standards.
  280         (8) AUDITS.—The department’s management of the funding of
  281  the supplemental educational services program and its state
  282  approved providers must annually undergo an external audit by an
  283  independent certified public accountant who does not have a
  284  personal interest, direct or indirect, in the fiscal affairs of
  285  the department’s supplemental educational services program.
  286         (9)(6) RULES.—The State Board of Education may adopt rules
  287  pursuant to ss. 120.536(1) and 120.54 to implement the
  288  provisions of this section and may enforce the provisions of
  289  this section pursuant to s. 1008.32.
  290         Section 3. Paragraph (f) of subsection (1) of section
  291  1011.62, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
  292         1011.62 Funds for operation of schools.—If the annual
  293  allocation from the Florida Education Finance Program to each
  294  district for operation of schools is not determined in the
  295  annual appropriations act or the substantive bill implementing
  296  the annual appropriations act, it shall be determined as
  297  follows:
  298         (1) COMPUTATION OF THE BASIC AMOUNT TO BE INCLUDED FOR
  299  OPERATION.—The following procedure shall be followed in
  300  determining the annual allocation to each district for
  301  operation:
  302         (f) Supplemental academic instruction; categorical fund.—
  303         1. There is created a categorical fund to provide
  304  supplemental academic instruction to students in kindergarten
  305  through grade 12. This paragraph may be cited as the
  306  “Supplemental Academic Instruction Categorical Fund.”
  307         2. Categorical funds for supplemental academic instruction
  308  shall be allocated annually to each school district in the
  309  amount provided in the General Appropriations Act. These funds
  310  shall be in addition to the funds appropriated on the basis of
  311  FTE student membership in the Florida Education Finance Program
  312  and shall be included in the total potential funds of each
  313  district. These funds shall be used to provide supplemental
  314  academic instruction to students enrolled in the K-12 program.
  315         a. For the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 fiscal years, each
  316  school district that has one or more of the 100 lowest
  317  performing elementary schools based on the state reading
  318  assessment shall use these categorical funds, together with the
  319  funds provided in the district’s research-based reading
  320  instruction allocation and other available funds, to provide an
  321  additional hour of instruction beyond the normal school day for
  322  each day of the entire school year for intensive reading
  323  instruction for the students in each of these schools. This
  324  additional hour of instruction must be provided only by teachers
  325  or reading specialists who are effective in teaching reading.
  326  Students enrolled in these schools who have level 5 assessment
  327  scores may participate in the additional hour of instruction on
  328  an optional basis. Exceptional student education centers shall
  329  not be included in the 100 schools.
  330         b. Beginning in the 2014-2015 fiscal year and thereafter,
  331  each school district shall use these categorical funds, together
  332  with other available funds, to provide summer school programs
  333  for K-12 students who:
  334         (I) Are at risk of academic failure;
  335         (II) Desire to enroll in elective courses; or
  336         (III) Are from families whose income is below 200 percent
  337  of the federal poverty guidelines.
  338         c. After the requirements in sub-subparagraphs a. and b.
  339  are this requirement has been met, supplemental instruction
  340  strategies may include, but are not limited to: modified
  341  curriculum, reading instruction, after-school instruction,
  342  tutoring, mentoring, class size reduction, extended school year,
  343  intensive skills development in summer school, and other methods
  344  for improving student achievement. Supplemental instruction may
  345  be provided to a student in any manner and at any time during or
  346  beyond the regular 180-day term identified by the school as
  347  being the most effective and efficient way to best help that
  348  student progress from grade to grade and to graduate.
  349         3. Effective with the 1999-2000 fiscal year, funding on the
  350  basis of FTE membership beyond the 180-day regular term shall be
  351  provided in the FEFP only for students enrolled in juvenile
  352  justice education programs or in education programs for
  353  juveniles placed in secure facilities or programs under s.
  354  985.19. Funding for instruction beyond the regular 180-day
  355  school year for all other K-12 students shall be provided
  356  through the supplemental academic instruction categorical fund
  357  and other state, federal, and local fund sources with ample
  358  flexibility for schools to provide supplemental instruction to
  359  assist students in progressing from grade to grade and
  360  graduating.
  361         4. The Florida State University School, as a lab school, is
  362  authorized to expend from its FEFP or Lottery Enhancement Trust
  363  Fund allocation the cost to the student of remediation in
  364  reading, writing, or mathematics for any graduate who requires
  365  remediation at a postsecondary educational institution.
  366         5. Beginning in the 1999-2000 school year, dropout
  367  prevention programs as defined in ss. 1003.52, 1003.53(1)(a),
  368  (b), and (c), and 1003.54 shall be included in group 1 programs
  369  under subparagraph (d)3.
  370         Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2013.

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