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Go to Bill: HB 731


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CS/CS/HB 731 — Home Education

by Education Committee; PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee; and Reps. Sullivan and others (CS/CS/SB 732 by Appropriations Committee; Education Committee; Senators Baxley and Grimsley)

This summary is provided for information only and does not represent the opinion of any Senator, Senate Officer, or Senate Office.

Prepared by: Education Committee (ED)

The bill modifies requirements related to home education programs, school attendance, and the Florida Partnership for Minority and Underrepresented Student Achievement. Specifically, the bill:

  • Modifies the home education program to:

  • Clarify the definition of a “parent,” consistent with Florida law.

  • Specify limits on information required by the school district from a parent unless the home education program student chooses to participate in a district program or service.

  • Authorize a school district to provide access to career and technical education courses and programs to home education program students who enroll in a public school solely for the career and technical courses or programs.

  • Require industry certifications; national assessments; and statewide, standardized assessments offered by the school district to be made available to home education program students.

  • Clarifies school attendance procedures to:

  • Specify that district school superintendents may not require evidence of a child’s age if the child attends a parochial, religious, or denominational school; a private school; a home education program; or a private tutoring program.

  • Authorize the district school superintendent to refer instances of nonenrollment to a child study team for intervention.

  • Require all reasonable efforts to resolve cases of nonenrollment and nonattendance to be exhausted prior to initiating criminal prosecution.

  • Modifies the Florida Partnership for Minority and Underrepresented Student Achievement to:

  • Update the name of the preliminary ACT assessment to the PreACT.

  • Add the ACT and the PreACT to specified assessments included in databases containing assessment data, to which the Florida Department of Education must provide access for evaluation purposes.

If approved by the Governor, these provisions take effect July 1, 2018.

Vote: Senate 37-0; House 101-0