Florida Senate - 2010                                     SB 206
       
       
       
       By Senator Hill
       
       
       
       
       1-00235-10                                             2010206__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to district school board policies and
    3         procedures; amending s. 1001.43, F.S.; providing
    4         legislative intent to recognize student academic
    5         achievement; encouraging each district school board to
    6         adopt policies and procedures that provide for an
    7         annual “Academic Scholarship Signing Day”; providing
    8         an effective date.
    9  
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Subsection (14) is added to section 1001.43,
   13  Florida Statutes, to read:
   14         1001.43 Supplemental powers and duties of district school
   15  board.—The district school board may exercise the following
   16  supplemental powers and duties as authorized by this code or
   17  State Board of Education rule.
   18         (14) RECOGNITION OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.—
   19         (a) The Legislature recognizes the importance of promoting
   20  student academic achievement, motivating students to attain
   21  academic achievement, and providing positive acknowledgment for
   22  that achievement. It is the intent of the Legislature that
   23  school districts bestow the same level of recognition to the
   24  state’s academic scholars as to its athletic scholars.
   25         (b) The district school board is encouraged to adopt
   26  policies and procedures to provide for a student “Academic
   27  Scholarship Signing Day” by declaring the third Tuesday in April
   28  each year as “Academic Scholarship Signing Day.” The “Academic
   29  Scholarship Signing Day” shall recognize the outstanding
   30  academic achievement of high school seniors who sign a letter of
   31  intent to accept an academic scholarship offered to the student
   32  by a postsecondary educational institution. District school
   33  board policies and procedures may include, but need not be
   34  limited to, conducting assemblies or other appropriate public
   35  events in which students offered academic scholarships assemble
   36  and sign actual or ceremonial documents accepting those
   37  scholarships. The district school board may encourage holding
   38  such events in an assembly or gathering of high school freshmen
   39  or sophomores as a means of making academic success and
   40  recognition visible to these students.
   41         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010.