Senate Bill 0862
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 1998 SB 862
By Senator Kirkpatrick
5-804-98
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to educational technology;
3 requiring the consolidation and publication of
4 educational technology related statutes and
5 rules; requiring establishment of a
6 technological standard for schools and
7 development of a plan for its implementation;
8 providing requirements for technological
9 upgrades and school design; providing allowable
10 capital expenditures; requiring the pursuit of
11 federal and other funds; requiring
12 establishment of a Technology Services and
13 Products Bank and providing purposes thereof;
14 requiring development of a plan to provide
15 information programs to venues outside the
16 classroom; providing an effective date.
17
18 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
19
20 Section 1. As a means of facilitating easy,
21 comprehensive access, all educational technology related
22 statutes, State Board of Education rules, and Department of
23 Education administrative rules shall be collected and
24 published by the Department of Education in a separate section
25 of its compilation entitled Florida School Laws. All
26 educational technology related statutes, State Board of
27 Education rules, and Department of Education administrative
28 rules shall be consolidated in one place within the Florida
29 Statutes, State Board of Education rules, or Florida
30 Administrative Code, as appropriate.
31
1
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 1998 SB 862
5-804-98
1 Section 2. (1) The State Board of Education shall
2 establish a periodically adjusted minimum technological
3 foundation which shall be a technological standard providing
4 uniformity, compatibility, flexibility, capacity, and
5 expandability for all schools in the state. The state shall
6 assist school districts in achieving the minimum technological
7 foundation which shall be a floor that may be exceeded by
8 school districts.
9 (2) The planning benchmark for the minimum
10 technological foundation shall be X + 5, with X representing
11 the technology available in the current year and 5
12 representing an estimation of the technology which will be
13 available 5 years in the future. The X + 5 standard shall be
14 a rolling standard created, and then updated and extended on
15 no less than a biennial basis, by an agency-neutral
16 technological development forecasting conference organized
17 under the State Board of Education and comprised of persons
18 recognized nationally as leaders in research and development
19 of technology hardware and basic operating systems.
20 (3) The Office of Educational Technology of the
21 Department of Education, in consultation with the school
22 districts, shall develop a 5-year plan to bring all Florida
23 schools to the minimum technological foundation level in terms
24 of wiring infrastructure and processing equipment.
25 Section 3. (1) Subsequent to establishment of the
26 initial technological foundation, all newly purchased or
27 leased instructional, information retrieval, and information
28 or instruction delivery software and hardware obtained by the
29 state, a local school district, or an individual school shall
30 be upgradable within the parameters of the current X + 5
31 standard. Software and hardware vendors who agree to perform,
2
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 1998 SB 862
5-804-98
1 during a specified period after delivery, upgrades which
2 extend the useful life of their products at no cost, or, at
3 most, a nominal cost, shall be preferred. In addition, when
4 practicable, lease or license contracts or obligations for new
5 software or hardware shall be for relatively short periods of
6 time to allow adjustments to be made quickly or new vendors to
7 be accessed rapidly as technological change and development
8 require.
9 (2) All new schools shall be designed to anticipate,
10 and easily accommodate, wiring infrastructure updates and
11 upgrades, and all retrofits of existing schools shall be, to
12 the maximum extent possible, designed and accomplished to
13 accommodate ease of future updating and upgrading. Designs
14 contemplated under this subsection should include, but not be
15 limited to, the following features: walls that are movable or
16 removable to provide for flexible groupings and meeting rooms
17 of varying size in addition to, or in place of, standard
18 classrooms. To the extent practicable, a design strategy
19 should be employed that allows "academic neighborhood"
20 grouping of school functions, grade levels, and subjects. The
21 flexible design contemplated under this subsection should also
22 include multiple technological access points as well as
23 telephone and voice-mail facilities for use by teachers.
24 Section 4. (1) Purchases of goods and services
25 necessary for upgrading or retrofitting of technological
26 resources within existing schools are allowable capital
27 expenditures.
28 (2) The Office of Educational Technology of the
29 Department of Education shall be specifically charged with
30 taking an affirmative leadership role in aggressively pursuing
31 all available federal and other funds which can assist in
3
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 1998 SB 862
5-804-98
1 offsetting the expense of upgrading Florida's schools to the
2 technological standard, and in assisting and facilitating the
3 aggressive seeking of such funds by school districts and
4 individual schools. The office shall move expeditiously to
5 secure any and all moneys which may become available under the
6 Universal Service Order Program of the Federal Communications
7 Commission.
8 Section 5. The State Board of Education, in
9 association with the technological development forecasting
10 conference, shall establish a Technology Services and Products
11 Bank. The bank shall serve the following primary purposes:
12 (1) To collect information on software and technology
13 services available within the state, including, but not
14 limited to, educational applications. The bank shall
15 disseminate such information to the worldwide technology
16 community through an Internet site.
17 (2) To serve as an information clearinghouse for
18 software research and development project proposals. To
19 reduce instances of duplication of publicly funded research
20 and development, groups or organizations requesting public
21 funds for such projects shall consult with the bank at the
22 time of request to determine if similar or identical projects
23 have already been completed or are ongoing and report the
24 bank's findings to the funding entity. After funding is
25 approved, a recipient shall inform the bank of any products
26 produced as a result of its publicly funded research which
27 information shall be added to the database.
28 Section 6. The Office of Educational Technology of the
29 Department of Education shall develop a plan to provide for
30 information and learning programs that are amenable to
31 delivery via technological platforms to venues outside the
4
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 1998 SB 862
5-804-98
1 traditional classroom setting. Such a plan shall encourage
2 the use of home-based and public and semipublic settings,
3 including, but not limited to, auditoriums, conference and
4 convention centers, libraries, and theaters, either publicly
5 or privately held.
6 Section 7. This act shall take effect July 1 of the
7 year in which enacted.
8
9 *****************************************
10 HOUSE SUMMARY
11
Requires the consolidation and publication of educational
12 technology related statutes and rules. Requires
establishment of a technological standard for schools and
13 development of a plan for its implementation. Provides
requirements for technological upgrades and school
14 design. Provides allowable capital expenditures and
requires the pursuit of federal and other funds. Requires
15 establishment of a Technology Services and Products Bank
and provides purposes thereof. Requires development of a
16 plan to provide information programs to venues outside
the classroom.
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
5