Florida Senate - 2022 SB 802
By Senator Gruters
23-00085B-22 2022802__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to school safety; amending s. 943.082,
3 F.S.; requiring the FortifyFL reporting tool to notify
4 reporting parties that submitting false information
5 may subject them to criminal penalties; providing that
6 certain reports will remain anonymous; amending s.
7 1001.11, F.S.; requiring the Commissioner of Education
8 to oversee and enforce compliance with requirements
9 relating to school safety and security; requiring the
10 commissioner to take specified actions under certain
11 circumstances relating to noncompliance; amending s.
12 1001.20, F.S.; requiring the Department of Education’s
13 Office of Inspector General to investigate certain
14 allegations if the commissioner determines that a
15 district school board is unwilling or unable to
16 address the allegations; amending s. 1001.212, F.S.;
17 revising the duties of the Office of Safe Schools;
18 amending s. 1006.07, F.S.; requiring certain law
19 enforcement officers to be physically present and
20 directly involved in active assailant emergency
21 drills; requiring the State Board of Education to
22 adopt rules; specifying the requirements for the
23 rules; requiring district school boards and charter
24 school governing boards to adopt family reunification
25 plans; providing for the update and review of such
26 plan; requiring all members of threat assessment teams
27 to be involved in certain processes and decisions;
28 amending s. 1006.12, F.S.; making technical changes;
29 authorizing school safety officers to make arrests on
30 property owned or leased by a charter school under a
31 charter contract; requiring district school
32 superintendents or charter school administrators,
33 instead of school districts, to notify county sheriffs
34 and the Office of Safe Schools of certain safe-school
35 officer-related incidents; specifying training
36 requirements for certain safe-school officers;
37 amending s. 1006.1493, F.S.; requiring the Florida
38 Safe Schools Assessment Tool to address policies and
39 procedures to prepare for and respond to natural and
40 manmade disasters; amending s. 1008.32, F.S.;
41 authorizing the State Board of Education to direct a
42 school district to suspend the salaries of certain
43 officials if the state board determines the district
44 school board is unwilling or unable to comply with law
45 or state board rule; providing effective dates.
46
47 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
48
49 Section 1. Effective October 1, 2022, paragraph (c) is
50 added to subsection (2) of section 943.082, Florida Statutes, to
51 read:
52 943.082 School Safety Awareness Program.—
53 (2) The reporting tool must notify the reporting party of
54 the following information:
55 (c) That if, following an investigation, it is determined
56 that a person knowingly submitted a false tip through FortifyFL,
57 the Internet protocol (IP) address of the device on which the
58 tip was submitted will be provided to law enforcement agencies
59 for further investigation, and the reporting party may be
60 subject to criminal penalties under s. 837.05. In all other
61 circumstances, unless the reporting party has chosen to disclose
62 his or her identity, the report will remain anonymous.
63 Section 2. Subsection (9) of section 1001.11, Florida
64 Statutes, is amended to read:
65 1001.11 Commissioner of Education; other duties.—
66 (9) The commissioner shall oversee and enforce compliance
67 with the requirements relating to school safety and security
68 requirements of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public
69 Safety Act, chapter 2018-3, Laws of Florida, by school
70 districts; district school superintendents; and public schools,
71 including charter schools. Upon notification by the Office of
72 Safe Schools of a school district’s substantiated noncompliance
73 with school safety and security requirements, the commissioner
74 must require the district school board to withhold further
75 payment of the salary of the superintendent, as authorized under
76 s. 1001.42(13)(b). Upon notification by the Office of Safe
77 Schools that a charter school has failed to comply with the
78 requirements relating to school safety and security, the
79 commissioner must facilitate compliance by charter schools by
80 recommending actions to the district school board pursuant to s.
81 1002.33. The commissioner must facilitate compliance to the
82 maximum extent provided under law, identify incidents of
83 noncompliance, and impose or recommend to the State Board of
84 Education, the Governor, or the Legislature enforcement and
85 sanctioning actions pursuant to s. 1008.32 and other authority
86 granted under law.
87 Section 3. Paragraph (e) of subsection (4) of section
88 1001.20, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
89 1001.20 Department under direction of state board.—
90 (4) The Department of Education shall establish the
91 following offices within the Office of the Commissioner of
92 Education which shall coordinate their activities with all other
93 divisions and offices:
94 (e) Office of Inspector General.—Organized using existing
95 resources and funds and responsible for promoting
96 accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness and detecting
97 fraud and abuse within school districts, the Florida School for
98 the Deaf and the Blind, and Florida College System institutions
99 in Florida. If the Commissioner of Education determines that a
100 district school board, the Board of Trustees for the Florida
101 School for the Deaf and the Blind, or a Florida College System
102 institution board of trustees is unwilling or unable to address
103 substantiated allegations made by any person relating to waste,
104 fraud, or financial mismanagement within the school district,
105 the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, or the Florida
106 College System institution, the office must shall conduct,
107 coordinate, or request investigations into such substantiated
108 allegations. If the Commissioner of Education determines that a
109 district school board is unwilling or unable to address credible
110 allegations made by any person relating to compliance with the
111 requirements relating to school safety and security, the office
112 must conduct, coordinate, or request investigations into such
113 allegations. The office shall investigate allegations or reports
114 of possible fraud or abuse against a district school board made
115 by any member of the Cabinet; the presiding officer of either
116 house of the Legislature; a chair of a substantive or
117 appropriations committee with jurisdiction; or a member of the
118 board for which an investigation is sought. The office shall
119 have access to all information and personnel necessary to
120 perform its duties and shall have all of its current powers,
121 duties, and responsibilities authorized in s. 20.055.
122 Section 4. Present subsections (14) and (15) of section
123 1001.212, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (15)
124 and (16), respectively, a new subsection (14) and subsection
125 (17) are added to that section, and subsections (2) and (6) of
126 that section are amended, to read:
127 1001.212 Office of Safe Schools.—There is created in the
128 Department of Education the Office of Safe Schools. The office
129 is fully accountable to the Commissioner of Education. The
130 office shall serve as a central repository for best practices,
131 training standards, and compliance oversight in all matters
132 regarding school safety and security, including prevention
133 efforts, intervention efforts, and emergency preparedness
134 planning. The office shall:
135 (2) Provide ongoing professional development opportunities
136 to school district and charter school personnel.
137 (6) Coordinate with the Department of Law Enforcement to
138 provide a unified search tool, known as the Florida School
139 Safety Portal, centralized integrated data repository and data
140 analytics resources to improve access to timely, complete, and
141 accurate information integrating data from, at a minimum, but
142 not limited to, the following data sources by August 1, 2019:
143 (a) Social media Internet posts;
144 (b) The Department of Children and Families;
145 (c) The Department of Law Enforcement;
146 (d) The Department of Juvenile Justice;
147 (e) The mobile suspicious activity reporting tool known as
148 FortifyFL;
149 (f) School environmental safety incident reports collected
150 under subsection (8); and
151 (g) Local law enforcement.
152
153 Data that is exempt or confidential and exempt from public
154 records requirements retains its exempt or confidential and
155 exempt status when incorporated into the centralized integrated
156 data repository. To maintain the confidentiality requirements
157 attached to the information provided to the centralized
158 integrated data repository by the various state and local
159 agencies, data governance and security shall ensure compliance
160 with all applicable state and federal data privacy requirements
161 through the use of user authorization and role-based security,
162 data anonymization and aggregation and auditing capabilities. To
163 maintain the confidentiality requirements attached to the
164 information provided to the centralized integrated data
165 repository by the various state and local agencies, each source
166 agency providing data to the repository shall be the sole
167 custodian of the data for the purpose of any request for
168 inspection or copies thereof under chapter 119. The department
169 shall only allow access to data from the source agencies in
170 accordance with rules adopted by the respective source agencies
171 and the requirements of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
172 Criminal Justice Information Services security policy, where
173 applicable.
174 (14) Develop, in coordination with the Division of
175 Emergency Management; other federal, state, and local law
176 enforcement agencies; fire and rescue agencies; and first
177 responder agencies, a model family reunification plan for use by
178 child care facilities, public K-12 schools, and public
179 postsecondary educational institutions that are closed or
180 unexpectedly evacuated due to a natural or manmade disaster.
181 This model plan must be reviewed annually and updated, as
182 applicable.
183 (17) Maintain a current directory of public and private
184 school-based diversion programs and cooperate with each judicial
185 circuit and the Department of Juvenile Justice to facilitate
186 their efforts to monitor and enforce each governing body’s
187 compliance with s. 985.12.
188 Section 5. Paragraph (a) of subsection (4) and paragraph
189 (a) of subsection (7) of section 1006.07, Florida Statutes, are
190 amended, and paragraph (d) is added to subsection (6) of that
191 section, to read:
192 1006.07 District school board duties relating to student
193 discipline and school safety.—The district school board shall
194 provide for the proper accounting for all students, for the
195 attendance and control of students at school, and for proper
196 attention to health, safety, and other matters relating to the
197 welfare of students, including:
198 (4) EMERGENCY DRILLS; EMERGENCY PROCEDURES.—
199 (a) Formulate and prescribe policies and procedures, in
200 consultation with the appropriate public safety agencies, for
201 emergency drills and for actual emergencies, including, but not
202 limited to, fires, natural disasters, active assailant and
203 hostage situations, and bomb threats, for all students and
204 faculty at all public schools of the district composed comprised
205 of grades K-12, pursuant to State Board of Education rules.
206 Drills for active assailant and hostage situations must shall be
207 conducted in accordance with developmentally appropriate and
208 age-appropriate procedures, as specified in State Board of
209 Education rules at least as often as other emergency drills. Law
210 enforcement officers responsible for responding to the school in
211 the event of an active assailant emergency, as determined
212 necessary by the sheriff in coordination with the district’s
213 school safety specialist, must be physically present on campus
214 and directly involved in the execution of active assailant
215 emergency drills. District school board policies must shall
216 include commonly used alarm system responses for specific types
217 of emergencies and verification by each school that drills have
218 been provided as required by law, State Board of Education
219 rules, and fire protection codes and may provide accommodations
220 for drills conducted by exceptional student education centers.
221 District school boards shall establish emergency response and
222 emergency preparedness policies and procedures that include, but
223 are not limited to, identifying the individuals responsible for
224 contacting the primary emergency response agency and the
225 emergency response agency that is responsible for notifying the
226 school district for each type of emergency. The State Board of
227 Education shall refer to recommendations provided in reports
228 published pursuant to s. 943.687 for guidance and, by August 1,
229 2023, consult with state and local constituencies to adopt rules
230 applicable to the requirements of this subsection which, at a
231 minimum, define the terms “emergency drill,” “active threat,”
232 and “after-action report” and establish minimum emergency drill
233 policies and procedures related to the timing, frequency,
234 participation, training, notification, accommodations, and
235 responses to threat situations by incident type, school level,
236 school type, and student and school characteristics. The rules
237 must require all types of emergency drills to be conducted no
238 less frequently than on an annual school year basis.
239 (6) SAFETY AND SECURITY BEST PRACTICES.—Each district
240 school superintendent shall establish policies and procedures
241 for the prevention of violence on school grounds, including the
242 assessment of and intervention with individuals whose behavior
243 poses a threat to the safety of the school community.
244 (d) Each district school board and charter school governing
245 board shall adopt, in coordination with local law enforcement
246 agencies, a family reunification plan to reunite students and
247 employees with their families in the event that a school is
248 closed or unexpectedly evacuated due to a natural or manmade
249 disaster. This reunification plan must be reviewed annually and
250 updated, as applicable.
251 (7) THREAT ASSESSMENT TEAMS.—Each district school board
252 shall adopt policies for the establishment of threat assessment
253 teams at each school whose duties include the coordination of
254 resources and assessment and intervention with individuals whose
255 behavior may pose a threat to the safety of school staff or
256 students consistent with the model policies developed by the
257 Office of Safe Schools. Such policies must include procedures
258 for referrals to mental health services identified by the school
259 district pursuant to s. 1012.584(4), when appropriate, and
260 procedures for behavioral threat assessments in compliance with
261 the instrument developed pursuant to s. 1001.212(12).
262 (a) A threat assessment team shall include persons with
263 expertise in counseling, instruction, school administration, and
264 law enforcement. All members of the threat assessment team must
265 be involved in the threat assessment process and final
266 decisionmaking. The threat assessment teams shall identify
267 members of the school community to whom threatening behavior
268 should be reported and provide guidance to students, faculty,
269 and staff regarding recognition of threatening or aberrant
270 behavior that may represent a threat to the community, school,
271 or self. Upon the availability of the behavioral threat
272 assessment instrument developed pursuant to s. 1001.212(12), the
273 threat assessment team shall use that instrument.
274 Section 6. Present subsection (6) of section 1006.12,
275 Florida Statutes, is redesignated as subsection (8), a new
276 subsection (6) and subsection (7) are added to that section, and
277 paragraph (c) of subsection (1), paragraphs (a) and (b) of
278 subsection (2), and subsection (5) of that section are amended,
279 to read:
280 1006.12 Safe-school officers at each public school.—For the
281 protection and safety of school personnel, property, students,
282 and visitors, each district school board and school district
283 superintendent shall partner with law enforcement agencies or
284 security agencies to establish or assign one or more safe-school
285 officers at each school facility within the district, including
286 charter schools. A district school board must collaborate with
287 charter school governing boards to facilitate charter school
288 access to all safe-school officer options available under this
289 section. The school district may implement any combination of
290 the options in subsections (1)-(4) to best meet the needs of the
291 school district and charter schools.
292 (1) SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER.—A school district may
293 establish school resource officer programs through a cooperative
294 agreement with law enforcement agencies.
295 (c) Complete mental health crisis intervention training
296 using a curriculum developed by a national organization with
297 expertise in mental health crisis intervention. The training
298 shall improve officers’ knowledge and skills as first responders
299 to incidents involving students with emotional disturbance or
300 mental illness, including de-escalation skills to ensure student
301 and officer safety.
302 (2) SCHOOL SAFETY OFFICER.—A school district may commission
303 one or more school safety officers for the protection and safety
304 of school personnel, property, and students within the school
305 district. The district school superintendent may recommend, and
306 the district school board may appoint, one or more school safety
307 officers.
308 (a) School safety officers shall undergo criminal
309 background checks, drug testing, and a psychological evaluation
310 and be law enforcement officers, as defined in s. 943.10(1),
311 certified under the provisions of chapter 943 and employed by
312 either a law enforcement agency or by the district school board.
313 If the officer is employed by the district school board, the
314 district school board is the employing agency for purposes of
315 chapter 943, and must comply with the provisions of that
316 chapter.
317 (b) A school safety officer has and shall exercise the
318 power to make arrests for violations of law on district school
319 board property or on property owned or leased by a charter
320 school under a charter contract, as applicable, and to arrest
321 persons, whether on or off such property, who violate any law on
322 such property under the same conditions that deputy sheriffs are
323 authorized to make arrests. A school safety officer has the
324 authority to carry weapons when performing his or her official
325 duties.
326 (5) NOTIFICATION.—The district school superintendent or
327 charter school administrator school district shall notify the
328 county sheriff and the Office of Safe Schools immediately after,
329 but no later than 72 hours after:
330 (a) A safe-school officer is dismissed for misconduct or is
331 otherwise disciplined.
332 (b) A safe-school officer discharges his or her firearm in
333 the exercise of the safe-school officer’s duties, other than for
334 training purposes.
335 (6) CRISIS INTERVENTION TRAINING.—Each safe-school officer
336 who is also a sworn law enforcement officer shall complete
337 mental health crisis intervention training using a curriculum
338 developed by a national organization with expertise in mental
339 health crisis intervention. The training must improve the
340 officer’s knowledge and skills as a first responder to incidents
341 involving students with emotional disturbance or mental illness,
342 including de-escalation skills to ensure student and officer
343 safety.
344 (7) LIMITATIONS.—An individual must satisfy the background
345 screening, psychological evaluation, and drug test requirements
346 and be approved by the sheriff before participating in any
347 training required by s. 30.15(1)(k), which may be conducted only
348 by a sheriff.
349
350 If a district school board, through its adopted policies,
351 procedures, or actions, denies a charter school access to any
352 safe-school officer options pursuant to this section, the school
353 district must assign a school resource officer or school safety
354 officer to the charter school. Under such circumstances, the
355 charter school’s share of the costs of the school resource
356 officer or school safety officer may not exceed the safe school
357 allocation funds provided to the charter school pursuant to s.
358 1011.62(13) and shall be retained by the school district.
359 Section 7. Paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section
360 1006.1493, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
361 1006.1493 Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool.—
362 (2) The FSSAT must help school officials identify threats,
363 vulnerabilities, and appropriate safety controls for the schools
364 that they supervise, pursuant to the security risk assessment
365 requirements of s. 1006.07(6).
366 (a) At a minimum, the FSSAT must address all of the
367 following components:
368 1. School emergency and crisis preparedness planning;
369 2. Security, crime, and violence prevention policies and
370 procedures;
371 3. Physical security measures;
372 4. Professional development training needs;
373 5. An examination of support service roles in school
374 safety, security, and emergency planning;
375 6. School security and school police staffing, operational
376 practices, and related services;
377 7. School and community collaboration on school safety; and
378 8. Policies and procedures for school officials to prepare
379 for and respond to natural and manmade disasters, including
380 family reunification plans to reunite students and employees
381 with their families after a school is closed or unexpectedly
382 evacuated due to such disasters; and
383 9. A return on investment analysis of the recommended
384 physical security controls.
385 Section 8. Paragraph (e) is added to subsection (4) of
386 section 1008.32, Florida Statutes, to read:
387 1008.32 State Board of Education oversight enforcement
388 authority.—The State Board of Education shall oversee the
389 performance of early learning coalitions, district school
390 boards, and Florida College System institution boards of
391 trustees in enforcement of all laws and rules. District school
392 boards and Florida College System institution boards of trustees
393 shall be primarily responsible for compliance with law and state
394 board rule.
395 (4) If the State Board of Education determines that an
396 early learning coalition, a district school board, or a Florida
397 College System institution board of trustees is unwilling or
398 unable to comply with law or state board rule within the
399 specified time, the state board has shall have the authority to
400 initiate any of the following actions:
401 (e) When the noncompliance is related to school safety
402 overseen by a district school board, direct the school district
403 to suspend the salary of the district school superintendent and,
404 if the superintendent is appointed, the salaries of the district
405 school board members until such time as the noncompliance is
406 remedied.
407 Section 9. Except as otherwise expressly provided in this
408 act, this act shall take effect July 1, 2022.