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Florida
24th June 2022
 
STATE NEWS
Summer Literacy Institute celebrates Florida educators' important role
Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. and the Florida Department of Education have launched the Summer Literacy Institute, a three-day professional learning event that celebrates educators and supports districts and schools with effectively implementing literacy instruction. The Institute is organized to provide professional development for literacy leadership teams at the early childhood, school and district levels. The goals of the Summer Literacy Institute include increasing educator knowledge of Florida’s B.E.S.T. (Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking) English Language Arts Standards, sharing evidence-based best practices, and providing access to associated literacy resources, including those that promote at-home reading and family engagement. Notably, the legislature has invested $202.5m for literacy achievement in the state’s new 2022-23 Freedom First Budget, including $170m for the reading allocation, $29m for the New Worlds Reading Scholarship Program, $2.5m for State Regional Literacy Directors, $1m for online literacy professional development administered through Just Read, Florida!
NATIONAL NEWS
Ed. Dept. invites comment on proposed Title IX changes
To mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education has released for public comment proposed changes to help elementary and secondary schools and colleges and universities implement the legislation. The proposed amendments will restore crucial protections for students who are victims of sexual harassment, assault, and sex-based discrimination that was weakened under previous regulations. The regulations will require that all students receive appropriate supports in accessing all aspects of education. They will strengthen protections for LGBTQI+ students who face discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and they will require that school procedures for complaints of sex discrimination, including sexual violence and other sex-based harassment, are fair to all involved. The proposed regulations also reaffirm the Department's core commitment to fundamental fairness for all parties, respect for freedom of speech and academic freedom, respect for complainants' autonomy, and clear legal obligations that enable robust enforcement of Title IX. The Department will engage in a separate rulemaking to address Title IX's application to athletics.
FINANCE
Florida unaffected by Supreme Court ruling on public aid for private schools
The U.S. Supreme Court made big news in school choice circles this week with its ruling that states may not exclude religious schools when offering private school vouchers. Patrick Gibbons, policy and public affairs manager for the scholarship funding organization Step Up For Students, said the Supreme Court would have impacted Florida’s model only if it had upheld the Maine program that was under review. “As it stands, Florida’s current school choice law does not discriminate against religious status or use,” Gibbons said. “Operators are free to create religious and non-religious schools alike.” Florida has offered tax credit scholarships since 2001. That program allows donors to contribute to a scholarship funding organization in lieu of certain state taxes. The organization then distributes scholarships to families, which can use them at any eligible private school including religious ones. The Legislature expanded the program in 2019 to include state-funded vouchers called Family Empowerment Scholarships, which also allow parents to take the money to schools that teach religion. Florida also has offered state-funded private school scholarships to students with special needs since 1999. All private schools, religious or not, are eligible to receive those funds. The same is true for Voluntary Prekindergarten vouchers, which began in 2005.
SAFETY & SECURITY
Congress poised to pass gun control bill
A bipartisan Senate bill unveiled Tuesday includes $300m for school security grants, including $100m for a program that can be used to “harden” schools meant to make them more difficult to target. The bill is Congress’ attempt to avert additional school shootings, and if enacted it will result in some schools getting a bit of extra money to support student mental health and bolster security. Aside from the $300m for school security, it offers $1bn for a broad array of efforts to “support safe and healthy students," $1bn for school-based mental health support, $240m to train school staff to notice and address student mental health challenges, and $50m for summer and after-school programs for middle and high school students. It would also ban the use of federal education funds to arm teachers or school staff. The Senate is expected to have a procedural vote on the bill shortly.
OPERATIONS
In praise of nonpartisan Florida school board races
In the context of increasingly political school board races, the TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers Editorial Board argues that schools should be places where children obtain "objective information and learn critical-thinking skills" they'll need, free from the spin of any political party. While some people might argue that since school board issues have become so politicized anyway, it makes sense to drop the pretense of nonpartisanship and bring the political food fights into the open, the Board acknowledges, and school board members have an important role in providing oversight into how a district is being run, they shouldn't micromanage decisions made by full-time professional staff. "Local school board races in Florida are nonpartisan. That's what the law says. Voters approved a statewide ballot initiative in 1998 that made them that way. It was a wise decision back then, and it remains so today," the Board asserts.
HEALTH & WELLBEING
FDA orders Juul e-cigarettes off the market
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ordered e-cigarette maker Juul to take all of its vape products off the market. The company, owned in part by tobacco giant Altria, has been blamed by public health experts as one of the brands responsible for getting teenagers hooked on e-cigarettes, after youth vaping rates soared in 2018. In 2019, in a response to criticism, the company discontinued sales of its fruity flavors popular among children, continuing to market only menthol and tobacco-flavored products. Though the rates have since dropped, in a 2021 federal survey high school and middle school students who regularly vape named Juul as one of the top brands they use.
TECHNOLOGY
School leaders urged to ask more questions of EdTech providers
Schools are awash in technology in a way never before seen, in large part due to the pandemic. Now, two years after schools rushed to employ digital tools to facilitate distance learning, school district leaders are being urged to ask more questions of education technology providers about the evidence supporting claims of their products' efficiency. There are few, if any, barriers to entry to the EdTech industry, and no governing body is holding companies accountable for their claims the way the Food and Drug Administration does with drug companies before they bring a product to market. Bart Epstein, chief executive of the Edtech Evidence Exchange, comments: “More and more companies are ready for the question about efficacy and research, and that’s a step in the right direction, but there’s a world of difference between someone having an independent, third-party, government-funded gold standard efficacy study showing how a product performs in a similar environment, and on the other end of the spectrum something written by a marketing department that uses vaguely academic, flavored language that is meaningless.” As a result, folks in the industry—well-intentioned though they may be—have been incentivized not to invest millions on a high-quality research study, but to spend that money beefing up their sales and marketing teams, to send people to conferences and trade shows, to source new potential customers.

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