{"id":248200,"date":"2026-04-27T12:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248200\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T12:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:39:16","slug":"florida-lawmakers-to-reconsider-school-vaccine-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248200\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida lawmakers to reconsider school vaccine requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big story: A little over six weeks ago, Florida senators declared with legislation that parents know best<\/a> when it comes to their children\u2019s vaccination schedule.<\/p>\n

The House ignored the bill, which would have granted more personal exemptions to school vaccine requirements.<\/p>\n

This week, the Senate is poised to try again during a special session that begins Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSB 6D<\/a> is identical to the bill the Senate passed on March 9,\u201c Senate President Ben Albritton wrote to his colleagues on Friday. \u201dI am referring SB 6D to the Committee on Rules for consideration on Tuesday. We heard extensive public testimony on this legislation in multiple committees during the regular session. As such, I have asked Rules Chair (Kathleen) Passidomo to move the bill through the committee process as expeditiously as possible.”<\/p>\n

That will allow time for consideration of a proposal on congressional redistricting, which has yet to be made public.<\/p>\n

The \u201cmedical freedom\u201d proposal still faces skepticism, including from House Speaker Daniel Perez, who has school-aged children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the middle of a measles outbreak, it\u2019s tough for me to all of a sudden allow for children in schools to not have the measles vaccine, to not have polio (vaccines), to not have chicken pox (vaccines),\u201d he recently told WPLG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office is still pushing for action. Read more from the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Arts education: A Hillsborough County elementary school teacher teaches children life lessons through drumline<\/a>. Also see a photo gallery<\/a> of the action.<\/p>\n

Budget cuts: Highlands County students are urging the school district not to close Highlands Career Institute<\/a> as part of its cost-savings measures, Highlands News-Sun reports.<\/p>\n

Contract talks: Negotiations for Orange County teacher contracts broke down<\/a> over health insurance premiums, the Orlando Sentinel reports.<\/p>\n

School politics: Education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas accused St. Johns County superintendent Brennan Asplen of encouraging teachers to vote against lawmakers who support vouchers<\/a>, Jacksonville Today reports. Asplen denied the allegation<\/a>, WJAX reports. \u2022 The state education department launched an investigation<\/a> into Broward County school board chairperson Sarah Leonardi after she acknowledged using public school funds for a political event, Florida Politics reports.<\/p>\n

Teacher resignations: Exit surveys show more than 100 Palm Beach County teachers quit their jobs because of low salaries<\/a>, WFLX reports.<\/p>\n

From the police blotter … A Marion County elementary school paraprofessional was arrested on accusations of child pornography possession<\/a>, WCJB reports.<\/p>\n

From the court docket … A Pinellas County family is suing the school district, alleging that lax hiring procedures led to an employee sexually abusing their daughter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a district serving more than 200,000 students, class sizes are not static. They change as enrollment shifts, students move, schedules are refined and staffing adjustments are made throughout the year. Data pulled at a single moment, before those adjustments occur, should not be interpreted as a definitive judgment on classroom conditions.\u201d \u2014 Van Ayres, Hillsborough County schools superintendent, in the Tampa Bay Times<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWithout clear answers about how schools make decisions regarding book removals, officials risk blurring the line between routine library management and censorship.\u201d \u2014 William Johnson, Florida director of PEN America, in a news release<\/a> about Polk County library book actions<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen vaccine protections weaken, the impact shows up first in emergency departments, on pediatric floors and in families\u2019 daily lives. That is why Florida\u2019s long-standing school vaccine safeguards matter so profoundly.\u201d \u2014 Sarah Marsicek, a pediatric hospital medicine physician in Gainesville, in the Orlando Sentinel<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

South Florida activist Chaz Stevens has tried to get the Bible and dictionary banned from schools as controversial material. He\u2019s back with another challenge. What\u2019s he up to this time?<\/p>\n

a) Donating a digital satire he wrote called \u201cThe Trump Bible\u201d to schools and then petitioning to have it removed<\/p>\n

b) Challenging any use of artificial intelligence to flag objectionable school library content without context<\/p>\n

c) Arguing that Gov. Ron DeSantis holding press conferences in public schools during the class day is an inappropriate political use<\/p>\n

Find the answer in this story from Florida Politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss a story. Here\u2019s a link to Friday\u2019s roundup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Times Education Hub reports on Florida\u2019s schools and universities and the students they serve. You can contribute to the hub through our journalism fund by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The big story: A little over six weeks ago, Florida senators declared with legislation that parents know best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4432,28,30,29,4833,22518,71151,1335,108926,4719,19880,12692],"class_list":["post-248200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-broward-county-school-board","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-politics","tag-hillsborough-county-schools","tag-measles-vaccine","tag-orange-county","tag-personal-exemptions","tag-school-district","tag-tampa-bay-times","tag-vaccine-requirements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248200","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=248200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}