{"id":197508,"date":"2026-03-19T08:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197508\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:14:11","slug":"how-did-duval-schools-7-legislative-priorities-fare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197508\/","title":{"rendered":"How did Duval Schools\u2019 7 legislative priorities fare?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going into the legislative session that just ended, Duval Schools had a list of seven topics it hoped to see Tallahassee lawmakers address. But at the close of the least-productive session<\/a> in recent memory, most of the district\u2019s requests went unanswered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The legislative priorities ranged from hyper-local issues (like securing permission to hire the school district\u2019s own attorney) to statewide concerns the district threw its weight behind (like changing the funding model for Florida\u2019s school choice programs).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most went nowhere.<\/p>\n

The J-Bill<\/p>\n

Status: On its way to Gov. DeSantis<\/p>\n

Because of Jacksonville\u2019s consolidated structure, the school district is considered part of the city government. Sort of. Though the School Board is its own independent decision-making body, the school district is assigned an attorney from the city\u2019s Office of General Counsel.<\/p>\n

Current school board Chair Charlotte Joyce has prioritized changing this arrangement<\/a> to allow the school board to hire its own independent attorney. The move requires a change to the city charter, which has to be approved by Tallahassee. <\/p>\n

House Bill 4049<\/a>, by Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, passed the House 108-5 and the Senate 36-0. It\u2019s headed to the governor\u2019s desk, and he\u2019s expected to sign it. <\/p>\n

School choice funding model change<\/p>\n

Status: Passed the Senate but died in the House<\/p>\n

Florida funds its school districts<\/a> according to a complicated calculation that state lawmakers must approve annually. How much money a district receives depends in part on how many students are enrolled at checkpoints throughout each school year. Last school year, the state money ran out. Because of a $47 million shortfall, districts didn\u2019t receive payments from the state on time. And some private school providers who take state-funded scholarships (or what are sometimes called \u201cschool choice vouchers\u201d) say their payments were also delayed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A state audit<\/a> showed the voucher programs as a whole received nearly $400 million more than what was originally allocated to them. In November, the auditor general\u2019s office reported its findings to the Senate Appropriations Committee and recommended separating voucher funding from the school districts\u2019 funding<\/a>, instead of keeping it lumped together in one large pot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For this and a handful of other reasons, Duval Schools encouraged state lawmakers to separate the money. (Doing so would also make it easier to track students who move between school choice programs and public schools \u2014\u00a0and so ensure state funding follows the child.)<\/p>\n

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Pensacola, filed a bill that would have done just that: SB 318<\/a>. Two Democrats joined two Republicans and an independent as co-sponsors. It passed the Senate 38-0<\/a>, but the House never took up a companion bill \u2014\u00a0rendering the bill effectively dead.<\/p>\n

Student safety fusion center<\/p>\n

Status: Nothing yet<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement operates a network of \u201cfusion centers\u201d<\/a> \u2014\u00a0law enforcement agencies that agree to share resources, information and expertise. Duval Schools wants the state to appropriate $500,000 to establish a fusion center focused on student safety that would enable video feeds and help staff and first responders in case of a crisis. So far, there\u2019s no sign of fusion-center funding in the Senate or House budgets, but because lawmakers must return in a month to keep working on the budget<\/a>, there\u2019s still time for that to change.<\/p>\n

A bill focused on school safety, HB 757<\/a>, did pass and is on its way to the governor\u2019s desk. That bill expands Florida\u2019s \u201cguardian\u201d program, which allows certain faculty and staff to be trained to carry weapons on campus, to postsecondary institutions, and it also provides for some sharing of law enforcement records \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t fund the specific \u201c24\/7 monitoring operations center\u201d Duval Schools wants to see.<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence teaching resources<\/p>\n

Status: Timed out<\/p>\n

Duval Schools called for the state to \u201cinvest in a statewide, teacher-centered approach to artificial intelligence K-12 education\u201d \u2014 something it said aligned with an executive order<\/a> issued by President Donald Trump last year. <\/p>\n

A few bills this session addressed AI in education in some way \u2014\u00a0but none really tackled it from the angle of professional development for teachers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, introduced a bill, SB 1194<\/a>, that would have required the Department of Education to adopt statewide standards for AI and provide some teacher training, but the bill never got a hearing. \u200b\u200bCS\/CS\/HB 1503<\/a>, which would require high school students to receive some AI instruction, had more traction \u2014\u00a0the Senate passed it unanimously \u2014\u00a0but it still died in the House. Sen. Tom Leek\u2019s, R-St. Augustine, \u201cAI Bill of Rights\u201d (CS\/SB 482<\/a>) had DeSantis\u2019 support<\/a> but got pushback from the White House<\/a>, which said the federal government, not states, should regulate AI. It passed 35-2 in the Senate but died in the House.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Facilities planning flexibility<\/p>\n

Status: Some Senate action but no House traction <\/p>\n

Duval Schools administrators and board members frequently bemoan Florida\u2019s facilities planning regulations. Specifically, they say the state\u2019s method for calculating how much space is available<\/a> in the district\u2019s buildings \u2014 called the Florida Inventory of School Houses, or the FISH report \u2014 is outdated. They wanted lawmakers to address these rules in hopes that more accurate calculations would help schools avoid having to give space to charter schools, rent-free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several bills might have addressed this grievance, which is shared by a number of school districts in the state. Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, filed SB 1738<\/a>, for example. It wasn\u2019t focused entirely on modernizing the FISH report, but it did call for a more thorough review of school buildings. The bill was reviewed favorably in committee but did not make it to the finish line for a vote.<\/p>\n

More money for exceptional education students and English language learners<\/p>\n

Status: Probably not<\/p>\n

Public schools are required to provide an array of specialized services to students with specific needs. Citing a growing demand and a shortage of trained teachers, Duval Schools asked the state to increase funding for these students. (District-employed speech-language pathologists, for example, often advocate for themselves during school board meetings. The district spends quite a bit of money on \u201ccostly emergency contracts\u201d to employ temp workers, according to the board\u2019s legislative platform.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one championed this cause during the regular session by writing legislation that would update required funding allocations. But, because of the ongoing dispute between the Senate and the House in how to structure Florida\u2019s education allocations, there could still be major changes ahead for ESE funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Schools of Hope<\/p>\n

Status: Nope<\/p>\n

The last item on Duval Schools\u2019 legislative priority list \u2014 opposing the controversial expansion of the state\u2019s Schools of Hope charter school program\u00a0\u2014 was added to Duval\u2019s platform<\/a> two months after the first six items and over the objections of three board members, including Joyce, the board chair. <\/p>\n

Schools of Hope are a special category of charter school in Florida. The laws passed last session opened the door to districts having to host charters within public school buildings while also bearing much of the cost. Duval Schools, in the midst of a multi-year stretch of closing under-enrolled schools to help balance its budget, received dozens of letters of intent<\/a> from charter operators wanting to use its buildings.<\/p>\n

Districts across the state publicly voiced concerns<\/a> about the program\u2019s expansion, though Duval Schools leaders, including Joyce and Superintendent Chris Bernier<\/a>, repeatedly said they preferred to lobby \u201cquietly.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawmakers introduced bills that would have outright repealed last year\u2019s Schools of Hope expansion: SB 424<\/a>, introduced by Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, and a companion bill<\/a> by Rep. Ashley Gantt, D-Miami. The bills didn\u2019t progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, in February, the state Board of Education addressed some of districts\u2019 Schools of Hope concerns<\/a> through internal rulemaking. Critics say the rules are a \u201cstep in the right direction\u201d<\/a> but the program could still be financially detrimental for districts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a recent state board meeting, Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas called the pushback about Schools of Hope \u201chysteria [that] was overly dramatized\u201d and thanked two Duval school board members by name for being \u201cadults in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI particularly want to give praise to Charlotte Joyce and April Carney out of Duval County. They had always been on the phone with me, working behind the scenes,\u201d Kamoutsas said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t need to become a\u2026negative public spectacle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Today reporter Mike Mendenhall contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Going into the legislative session that just ended, Duval Schools had a list of seven topics it hoped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-197508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}