FloridaHB 12552025HouseWALLET

Education

Sponsored By: Dana Trabulsy (Republican)

Signed by Governor

AppropriationStudent Academic Success SubcommitteePreK-12 Budget SubcommitteeEducation & Employment CommitteeHouse CalendarRules

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

29 provisions identified: 19 benefits, 4 costs, 6 mixed.

More school support for relocated families

Florida extends its military-child education compact provisions’ scheduled repeal from July 1, 2025, to July 1, 2028, unless reenacted. The state must provide out-of-state school-record transfer training, and districts must make it available to staff serving military families. Beginning July 1, 2025, students with non-Florida diplomas gain an initial Bright Futures eligibility route after living with a parent or guardian on a military or public-service assignment away from Florida. The route also covers a parent or guardian who retired from that assignment within 12 months before graduation. This eligibility route does not guarantee a scholarship award.

New income rules for early learning

Beginning October 1, 2025, the early-learning definition of economically disadvantaged uses income at or below 55% of state median income. This replaces 150% of the federal poverty level; specified children of migratory and agricultural workers remain included. Early learning coalitions and the statewide entry system must track waiting lists using household income and program priorities. When the state budget does not set school readiness allocations, estimates must consider county population changes and past enrollment. These changes do not guarantee a program place or add a stated funding amount.

Student tutoring counts toward scholarship service

High school students can count RAISE program tutoring hours toward graduation community-service requirements and Bright Futures service requirements. The hours must be verified in writing. The student, a parent or guardian, and a school administrator or designee must sign the record. Counting these hours does not guarantee a scholarship award.

Stronger screening at private scholarship schools

Private scholarship schools must ensure fingerprint-based Level 2 screening for employees and contractors with direct student contact, plus owners and operators. Direct contact means unsupervised access to scholarship students; owners and operators must be screened before employment or service engagement. Listed disqualifiers bar educator certification or covered employment, and required rescreening applies. Fingerprints must be sent electronically to state law enforcement and retained in the Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse. Schools or individuals pay screening costs, and noncompliance can lead to suspended scholarship payments, enrollment limits, or program ineligibility.

Student behavior reviews add family involvement

Continuing disobedient, disrespectful, violent, abusive, uncontrollable, or disruptive behavior requires a principal’s referral to a child study team for a parent meeting. If unresolved, the team must document frequent family contact efforts, evaluate alternative education, and use behavior contracts. Before expulsions for specified weapons, threats, or false-report offenses end, superintendents must decide whether to extend them based on threat-team findings. For an extension, the superintendent must determine educational services and notify the student and parents of the recommendation.

More children qualify as at risk

Beginning October 1, 2025, Florida's at-risk child definition includes children living with a parent in residential behavioral health treatment. The parent must have custody of the child and receive comprehensive services at a licensed center with onsite child care. This expands the definition used by programs but does not guarantee services or a specific benefit amount.

Agency apprentices gain direct hiring route

Florida career service agencies can fill a job without open competition by selecting someone who completed that agency’s qualifying apprenticeship. The apprenticeship must meet the state’s statutory program definition. Completing it does not guarantee a job.

Educators keep initial application rules

Educator certification and covered employment applicants are governed by the laws and rules in place when they first apply. That treatment continues only while the certificate or employment remains continuous. The provision does not set wages or create a payment.

More teachers qualify for literacy incentives

State school-formula-funded instructional staff and certified prekindergarten teachers qualify for literacy incentives with a listed reading credential and literacy-support work. Qualifying credentials include reading certification, a reading endorsement, or the specified micro-credential. Separately, the state must name high-demand teaching subjects and locations each year, and districts must consider them in pay and supplements. Locations must include low-income urban and rural schools, schools graded F, and schools with three straight D grades. Districts may adjust local supplement areas; the law sets no incentive amount or required raise.

Parents get clearer math support notices

Schools identifying a substantial math deficiency must tell parents about New Worlds Scholarship Account eligibility and district New Worlds tutoring services. The notice itself does not award money or establish eligibility. The New Worlds Tutoring administrator must also provide math tutoring guidelines aligned with Florida’s B.E.S.T. math standards. The administrator must develop those guidelines with the Office of Mathematics and Sciences.

Parents must approve school corporal punishment

District school boards allowing corporal punishment must require parental consent before a school uses it on a student. Policies can require consent for the school year or before each use. Charter schools must also follow the state corporal-punishment rule, including parental consent when applicable. The law does not require schools to use corporal punishment.

Qualified staff for intensive reading help

Intensive reading help included in district reading plans must use staff with a listed reading credential and state-identified, evidence-based strategies. Staff with the reading micro-credential must receive supervision from reading-certified or endorsed staff, in person or through telecommunications. Districts may also describe how they prioritize highly effective teachers for kindergarten through grade 2. That teacher-assignment planning option is not mandatory.

Students learn college costs and aid

The required half-credit personal finance course adds instruction or discussion about college costs and financial aid. This applies to students entering grade 9 in 2023–2024 or later who are subject to that course requirement. Topics include attendance costs, completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, scholarships, grants, and student loans.

Colleges can cover more overdose medicines

Florida College System and state university requirements for emergency opioid antagonists cover a broader range of overdose-reversal medicines. A qualifying drug must block the effects of opioids introduced from outside the body. It must also have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to treat an opioid overdose.

Schools gain more overdose medicine options

Florida public schools may buy or arrange for FDA-approved emergency opioid overdose medicines, not just naloxone, for student overdoses. Schools must keep the medicine in a secure place on school grounds. Employees receive specified protection from civil lawsuits when they administer it under Florida's opioid-overdose and emergency-care laws.

Easier siting for some private schools

Private schools in counties with four incorporated municipalities can build temporary or permanent facilities on listed properties under existing zoning. These include qualifying library, community, cultural, religious, college, university, former-school, and licensed child-care properties. Qualifying facilities need no rezoning, special exception, land-use change, or mitigation requirements. Some listed properties must have been actively used for their listed purpose within five years of the school agreement. Property must be used solely for listed purposes, and applicable health, fire, and building safety rules still apply.

Fewer local barriers for charter schools

Local governments cannot impose charter-school building, site, or operating rules stricter than state facility standards or applied unequally to public schools. Comparable site-planning processes must treat charter schools fairly. A charter school meeting state requirements cannot be required to obtain a special exemption or conditional-use approval. Existing development-order or permit conditions can apply when uniformly applied to other public schools. A prevailing party in an enforcement case may receive attorney fees and court costs.

State gains advanced course development option

The Department of Education can join or create a national consortium to develop and implement advanced placement courses. Courses must align with Florida’s statutory course requirements. State education boards can identify national consortia alongside public colleges and universities for course development. Using this option is not mandatory.

Teacher programs rewarded for high-demand graduates

Teacher preparation programs receive extra weight in continued-approval reviews for producing graduates in statewide high-demand teaching areas. This replaces the former reference to critical teacher shortage areas. The change does not create a payment for teacher candidates.

Universities gain another distinction test option

State research universities can use an average Classic Learning Test score of at least 83 out of 120 for fall freshmen. This meets the test-score part of the preeminent university standard. Alternatives remain an average SAT score of at least 1,200 or ACT score of at least 25. The standard also requires an average weighted freshman GPA of at least 4.0 on a 4.0 scale. These are university distinction measures, not individual admission guarantees.

Universities update campus plans less often

Beginning July 1, 2025, Florida university boards must update campus master plans at least every 10 years instead of every 5. This reduces how often universities must complete the planning process. The law specifies no direct change to household costs or student services.

More nursing schools can seek funding

Institutions authorized under section 1009.521 can qualify for the Linking Industry to Nursing Education Fund. Nursing assistant programs need a prior-year completion rate of at least 70%. Practical nursing, associate nursing, and bachelor’s nursing programs need at least a 75% first-time NCLEX pass rate. That prior-year pass rate must be based on at least 10 test takers. The law states no award amount or new appropriation.

New limits on prekindergarten reenrollment

Children who leave a listed prekindergarten program for good cause can reenroll only before completing any listed program. The same completion limit applies to summer reenrollment after extreme hardship beyond the child’s or parent’s control. Reenrollment is limited to once unless a good-cause exemption applies. Good-cause reenrollment remains capped at one full-time-equivalent student’s funding and must follow the state attendance policy. The Department of Education sets good-cause and hardship criteria.

Competitive academics school statute is repealed

The law repeals the statute governing the Florida School for Competitive Academics. It also removes the school’s separate classification and pay plans from a statutory salary-setting list. The supplied provisions give no separate closure date, student transition plan, or individual salary change.

Less state review of school councils

The education commissioner no longer must review schools’ efforts to include minority and lower-income people on school advisory councils. The law removes this state oversight step, not council membership eligibility.

State narrows academic standards documents

New and revised standards documents submitted to the State Board of Education may contain only academic standards and benchmarks. The education commissioner must revise all currently approved documents to match this limit. Revised documents must be submitted for approval by July 1, 2026.

Districts choose tenth-grade tests; parents opt out

Public school districts must choose the PSAT/NMSQT, CLT10, or PreACT for districtwide testing of enrolled tenth graders. Parent notices must explain the opportunity to exempt a student from the selected test. Funding to administer it to all tenth graders depends on annual state budget funding.

College licensing exemptions carry different oversight

Institutions authorized under Florida law’s section 1009.521 are outside the Commission for Independent Education’s jurisdiction and need no commission license. Nonpublic religious colleges can operate without licensure through an annual sworn affidavit process. They must meet requirements covering religious identity, programs, degree titles, program duration, and consumer practices. The commission must approve or deny the affidavit and can demand supporting documents within 30 days. It must revoke approval when a religious college stops complying.

Districts gain limited insurance funding flexibility

School districts can use specified property-tax revenue for school property and casualty insurance, up to $200 per unweighted full-time-equivalent student. The law also broadens the referenced casualty-insurance definition. Operating money freed through those premium payments can fund only one-time operating expenses; statutory spending requirements still apply. The law also repeals education-finance statutes 1011.58 and 1011.59. The supplied text does not explain those repeals’ practical effects.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Dana Trabulsy
Republican • House

Cosponsors

Education & Employment Committee
Affiliation unavailable
Student Academic Success Subcommittee
Affiliation unavailable
Chase Tramont
Republican • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 254 • No: 27

House vote • 5/2/2025

House Floor Vote

Yes: 100 • No: 0

Senate vote • 5/2/2025

Senate Floor Vote

Yes: 30 • No: 0

Senate vote • 5/1/2025