Florida Senate - 2021 CS for SB 200 By the Committee on Education; and Senator Berman 581-01977-21 2021200c1 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to student retention; authorizing a 3 parent to request that his or her student be retained 4 in a grade level for a specified school year; 5 requiring such a request to be submitted in a 6 specified manner; requiring school district 7 superintendents to grant such requests if they are 8 timely received; authorizing school district 9 superintendents to grant requests that are not timely 10 received; requiring a retained student to remain in 11 the grade in which he or she was retained in until the 12 student qualifies for promotion at the end of the 13 school year; requiring school districts to report 14 certain data to the Department of Education by a 15 specified date; providing an effective date. 16 17 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 18 19 Section 1. Notwithstanding s. 1008.25, Florida Statutes, a 20 parent may request to retain his or her K-8 public school 21 student in the grade level to which the student was assigned at 22 the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year for the 2021-2022 23 school year. 24 (1) A parent who wishes for his or her student to be 25 retained under this act shall submit a retention request in 26 writing to the school district superintendent. Only requests 27 received by the superintendent on or before June 30, 2021, must 28 be considered. A school district superintendent who timely 29 receives such a request shall grant the request. A school 30 district superintendent who receives such a written request 31 after the deadline for receipt may grant the request upon his or 32 her discretion. 33 (2) A student retained at the request of a parent pursuant 34 to this act may not qualify for midyear promotion pursuant to s. 35 1002.3105, Florida Statutes, and shall remain in the grade in 36 which he or she was retained until the student qualifies for 37 promotion at the end of the school year. 38 (3) By June 30, 2022, school districts shall report to the 39 Department of Education the number of students retained pursuant 40 to this act for all or part of the 2021-2022 school year. 41 Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.