Senate Bill sb2696

    Florida Senate - 2007                                  SB 2696

    By Senator Wilson





    33-1461-07                                              See HB

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to public school assessment and

  3         accountability; creating s. 1008.365, F.S.;

  4         creating the Total Local Control and

  5         Accountability Pilot Project; providing for

  6         exemption from certain statutes and requiring

  7         development and implementation of local

  8         assessment and accountability programs;

  9         providing for Department of Education selection

10         and State Board of Education approval of school

11         district participants; requiring reporting;

12         providing an effective date.

13  

14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

15  

16         Section 1.  Section 1008.365, Florida Statutes, is

17  created to read:

18         1008.365  Total Local Control and Accountability Pilot

19  Project.--

20         (1)  The Legislature recognizes that assessment and

21  accountability measures to improve school and student

22  performance may be better addressed at the local level by

23  school districts than at the state level. With this in mind,

24  there is created the Total Local Control and Accountability

25  Pilot Project to allow up to three school districts to be

26  exempt from many of the assessment and accountability

27  provisions of this chapter. Specifically, school districts

28  selected for the pilot project shall be exempt from ss.

29  1008.22, 1008.25, 1008.31, 1008.32, 1008.33, 1008.34,

30  1008.341, 1008.345, and 1008.36. In exchange, each selected

31  school district shall be responsible for developing and

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2007                                  SB 2696
    33-1461-07                                              See HB




 1  implementing its own assessment and accountability program to

 2  improve school and student performance and provide a means by

 3  which to measure improvement.

 4         (2)  School districts shall volunteer to participate in

 5  the pilot project by submitting to the Department of Education

 6  a local assessment and accountability program proposal. The

 7  department shall select, and submit to the State Board of

 8  Education for approval, up to three school districts for

 9  participation in the pilot project: one in a county with a

10  population of 1 million or more residents; one in a county

11  with a population of 250,000 to 999,999 residents; and one in

12  a county with a population of under 250,000 residents. School

13  districts selected for the pilot project must represent

14  different geographic regions of the state: north, central, and

15  south. The state board may not deny approval of a local

16  assessment and accountability program proposal unless it finds

17  that the local assessment and accountability program is likely

18  to result in a decrease in school and student performance as

19  measured under the current state assessment and accountability

20  system under this chapter.

21         (3)  The pilot project shall commence at the beginning

22  of the 2007-2008 school year and conclude at the end of the

23  2009-2010 school year.

24         (4)  Each school district participating in the pilot

25  project shall submit an annual report on the progress and

26  results of its local assessment and accountability program to

27  the Governor, the State Board of Education, the President of

28  the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives by

29  June 1 of each year it participates in the pilot project.

30         Section 2.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2007.

31  

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.