Florida Senate - 2012 SB 944
By Senator Wise
5-00788-12 2012944__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to parental involvement and
3 accountability in public schools; creating s.
4 1008.347, F.S.; providing purpose to provide
5 information and tools to parents of prekindergarten
6 through grade 5 students and to set minimum standards
7 for parental involvement; specifying causes for
8 student underachievement; requiring shared information
9 between teachers, schools, and parents; requiring
10 prekindergarten through grade 5 teachers to evaluate
11 parental involvement and send a parental involvement
12 evaluation to parents under certain circumstances;
13 requiring adoption of a process to dispute a parental
14 involvement evaluation; requiring reports on parental
15 involvement evaluations by district school boards and
16 the Department of Education; providing for
17 implementation; providing an effective date.
18
19 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
20
21 Section 1. Section 1008.347, Florida Statutes, is created
22 to read:
23 1008.347 Parental involvement and accountability in public
24 schools.—
25 (1) PURPOSE.—Although the school environment has a great
26 impact on a child’s well-being and academic success, parents and
27 the home environment form the foundation of a child’s present
28 and future life. Without proper parental involvement in all
29 aspects of a child’s life, the child’s prospects to be an
30 effective, successful member of society are greatly diminished.
31 The purpose of this section is to provide information and tools
32 to parents of prekindergarten through grade 5 students to enable
33 them to have a positive impact on their child’s educational
34 success and to set minimum standards for parental involvement.
35 (2) CAUSES FOR STUDENT UNDERACHIEVEMENT.—The following
36 conditions are identified as possible causes for a student’s
37 underachievement:
38 (a) A child is not physically prepared for the school day
39 due to inadequate rest, improper clothing, lack of necessary
40 school supplies, or frequent tardiness or absence.
41 (b) A child is not mentally prepared for the school day due
42 to uncompleted homework or inadequate preparation for tests.
43 (c) Communication between parents and the teacher often
44 occurs only when a problem has risen rather than on a consistent
45 basis throughout the school year.
46 (3) SHARED INFORMATION.—Teachers and schools shall develop
47 or utilize current information packets, forms, or media for
48 sharing information with each parent with written
49 acknowledgement of receipt. The shared information may be
50 presented in the parent guide to successful student achievement
51 or in the checklist of parental actions that can strengthen
52 parental involvement in a child’s educational progress, required
53 under s. 1002.23, and includes:
54 (a) Expectations of parents with respect to a child’s
55 school attendance.
56 (b) Expectations of parents to timely respond to a
57 teacher’s request for communication.
58 (c) Expectations of parents to properly and fully complete
59 important emergency and medical information requested.
60 (d) Expectations of parents with respect to a child’s
61 academic work, including, but not limited to, time set aside for
62 daily homework and reading, nightly check of homework completion
63 and preparation for tests, and signature on forms.
64 (4) ACCOUNTABILITY.—
65 (a) To help parents establish a home environment that
66 supports the child as a student, each prekindergarten through
67 grade 5 teacher shall monitor and evaluate the involvement of
68 the parents of each student in his or her class. Each
69 prekindergarten through grade 5 teacher shall evaluate the
70 parental involvement as satisfactory, needs improvement, or
71 unsatisfactory on each of the following criteria as defined in
72 district school board policy:
73 1. The frequency of the student’s unexcused absence and
74 unexcused tardiness.
75 2. Parental response to requests for conferences or
76 communication.
77 3. Parental submission of complete and correct information,
78 including, but not limited to, emergency contact information;
79 student immunization records; and pertinent parental contact
80 information, which shall be on file and updated if changes occur
81 during the school year.
82 (b) The parental involvement evaluation shall be sent along
83 with the student’s quarterly assessment to the home of the
84 parent, which shall indicate “needs improvement” when one of the
85 following occurs in one quarter or “unsatisfactory” when two or
86 more of the following occur in one quarter:
87 1. The student has five or more unexcused absences;
88 2. The student has 10 or more instances of unexcused
89 tardiness;
90 3. Five or more requests for communication between the
91 teacher and the parent are made with no communication occurring;
92 or
93 4. The emergency contact information provided by the parent
94 is determined to be incomplete or incorrect.
95 (5) DISPUTE PROCESS.—A parent may dispute the parental
96 involvement evaluation by the teacher through a process adopted
97 by the district school board in rule in which the principal, the
98 teacher, and the parent discuss how the evaluation was
99 determined. The discussion shall also provide information and
100 feedback on the steps needed to improve the parental involvement
101 evaluation.
102 (6) REPORTING.—At the end of each school year, each
103 district school board shall prepare a report, as determined by
104 the State Board of Education in rule, containing data on
105 parental involvement evaluations, including data on evaluations
106 sent to parents, pursuant to subsection (4) and submit the
107 report to the Department of Education. Based upon the district
108 school board reports, the department shall prepare a final
109 report on parental involvement which shall be submitted by
110 August 1 of each year to the Governor, the President of the
111 Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
112 (7) IMPLEMENTATION.—This section shall be implemented
113 beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.
114 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2012.