{"id":165599,"date":"2026-02-23T13:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165599\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:23:07","slug":"state-responds-to-schools-of-hope-outcry-tightens-rules-tallahassee-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165599\/","title":{"rendered":"State responds to Schools of Hope outcry, tightens rules \u2013 Tallahassee Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jay Waagmeester, The Florida Phoenix <\/p>\n

State education officials amended the rules governing Schools of Hope, a program that was expanded at the end of the last legislative session and caused a stir in public schools around the state ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Florida Board of Education passed a rule Friday that would, among other things, limit the number of applications charter school operators hoping to colocate in traditional public school buildings may send to those districts to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hope Operators looking to take advantage of the program, now, under the amendments, can not submit more than five notices in one year.<\/p>\n

Less than a week after the program\u2019s expansion last fall, the Florida Policy Institute, a non-partisan research organization,\u00a0reported\u00a0that charter operators had sent 690 \u201cletters of intent\u201d to co-locate inside public schools in 22 counties.<\/p>\n

Limiting applications \u201cremoves the possibility for a Hope Operator to be able to really flood the market with building notices,\u201d Department of Education Senior Chancellor Paul Burns said.<\/p>\n

The new rule requires that operators attest they intend to open a school when they apply, so that they\u2019re not applying just to block other operators from locating in a specific building, since the program runs on a first-come-first-serve basis.<\/p>\n

Board member Daniel Foganholi commended schools for speaking up about what can be amended in the rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Media reports\u00a0around the state evidenced the panic that some districts went into when given a limited amount of time to respond to operators hoping to co-locate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t need to become a Twitter negative public spectacle. The idea here was this doesn\u2019t even take effect until the \u201927-\u201928 school year, so the hysteria was overly dramatized, but the adults in the room, the school board members who demonstrate true leadership skills and work with us behind the scenes to get this to a place that not just helps out the districts, but makes sure that students\u2019 opportunities are not limited, I think this landed in a great spot,\u201d Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said during the board\u2019s meeting Friday in Key West.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One concern voiced by opposing legislators last session and from other opponents of Schools of Hope is the cost put onto schools by the law.<\/p>\n

The original law required traditional public schools provide \u201cwithout limitation\u201d custodial, maintenance, safety, food, nursing, and transportation services to schools of hope.<\/p>\n

The change made Friday now stipulates that shared services would have to be \u201cin a manner agreed upon in the Mutual Management Plan\u201d agreed upon between the Hope operator and the school district. The proposal erases the language that stipulated the services be provided \u201cwithout limitation\u201d\u00a0and provides the district the ability to charge for incremental costs of utilities used by the Hope Operator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More amendments<\/p>\n

Defines schools at 90% or more facility capacity are \u201cfully used,\u201d excluding them from being deemed underused, vacant, or surplus. Previous language said fully used schools are those that do not have unused student stations.A facility is now eligible to host Schools of Hope if it has a facility use rate 75% or lower or has a surplus of at least 400 student stations.Schools of Hope are not be eligible to open inside buildings that opened within the past four years.Hope operators must notify schools at least one year in advance if they plan to open in a facility. In the notification, operators must indicate projected enrollment\u00a0and that the reason for sending the notice is \u201cnot speculative or filed for the purpose of restricting access to available facilities.\u201dHope operators must have a college attendance rate at all of their high schools that exceeds 80% and more than 70% of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch.Districts would have 20 business days, rather than calendar days as establish in the original policy, to object to Hope operators\u2019 request.<\/p>\n

Workshopping<\/p>\n

The Department of Education hosted a rule development meeting last month to solicit feedback for the rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adam Emerson, director of the Office of School Choice at the department, said last month that since the state implemented the expansions in the fall, there has been \u201ca lot of feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawmakers vastly expanded the Schools of Hope program in the waning hours of the 2025 legislative session.<\/p>\n

Since the last-minute change approved by lawmakers, traditional public schools have been overwhelmed by newly-enabled charter school operators applying to open inside unused portions of public schools.<\/p>\n

The Schools of Hope program was created under former House Speaker Richard Corcoran to allow charter schools to open near \u201cpersistently low performing\u201d schools, but the 2025 Legislature expanded the area and scope that these publicly funded and privately operated charter schools that may open in areas adjacent to \u201cpersistently low performing\u201d traditional public schools.<\/p>\n

It allows these schools to open in low-income zones or even outside such zones if there is a suitable underused, vacant, or surplus facility, and in the attendance zone of a \u201cpersistently low performing school.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, the day after the Board of Education implemented the law, Gov. Ron DeSantis and billionaire and major charter school donor Ken Griffin\u00a0announced\u00a0that a New York-based charter operator would open in Miami.<\/p>\n

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