Florida Senate - 2026 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS for SB 1036
Ì6201681Î620168
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Senate . House
Comm: RCS .
02/18/2026 .
.
.
.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The Committee on Rules (Calatayud) recommended the following:
1 Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
2
3 Delete everything after the enacting clause
4 and insert:
5 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of section
6 1012.34, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
7 1012.34 Personnel evaluation procedures and criteria.—
8 (3) EVALUATION PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA.—Instructional
9 personnel and school administrator performance evaluations must
10 be based upon the performance of students assigned to their
11 classrooms or schools, as provided in this section. Pursuant to
12 this section, a school district’s performance evaluation system
13 is not limited to basing unsatisfactory performance of
14 instructional personnel and school administrators solely upon
15 student performance, but may include other criteria to evaluate
16 instructional personnel and school administrators’ performance,
17 or any combination of student performance and other criteria.
18 Evaluation procedures and criteria must comply with, but are not
19 limited to, the following:
20 (a) A performance evaluation must be conducted for each
21 employee at least once a year, except that a classroom teacher,
22 as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a), excluding substitute teachers,
23 who is newly hired by the district school board must be observed
24 and evaluated at least twice in the first year of teaching in
25 the school district. The performance evaluation must be based
26 upon sound educational principles and contemporary research in
27 effective educational practices. The evaluation criteria must
28 include:
29 1. Performance of students.—At least one-third of a
30 performance evaluation must be based upon data and indicators of
31 student performance, as determined by each school district. This
32 portion of the evaluation must include growth or achievement
33 data of the teacher’s students or, for a school administrator,
34 the students attending the school over the course of at least 3
35 years. If less than 3 years of data are available, the years for
36 which data are available must be used. The proportion of growth
37 or achievement data may be determined by instructional
38 assignment.
39 2. Instructional practice.—For instructional personnel, at
40 least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based upon
41 instructional practice. Evaluation criteria used when annually
42 observing classroom teachers, as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a),
43 excluding substitute teachers, must include indicators based
44 upon each of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices adopted
45 by the State Board of Education.
46 a. For instructional personnel who are not classroom
47 teachers or certified school counselors, evaluation criteria
48 must be based upon indicators of the Florida Educator
49 Accomplished Practices and may include specific job expectations
50 related to student support.
51 b. For certified school counselors, evaluation criteria
52 must be based upon indicators of the Florida School Counseling
53 Standards adopted by the State Board of Education.
54 c. This section does not preclude a school administrator
55 from visiting and observing classroom teachers throughout the
56 school year for purposes of providing mentorship, training,
57 instructional feedback, or professional learning.
58 3. Instructional leadership.—For school administrators, at
59 least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based on
60 instructional leadership. Evaluation criteria for instructional
61 leadership must include indicators based upon each of the
62 leadership standards adopted by the State Board of Education
63 under s. 1012.986, including performance measures related to the
64 effectiveness of classroom teachers in the school, the
65 administrator’s appropriate use of evaluation criteria and
66 procedures, recruitment and retention of effective and highly
67 effective classroom teachers, improvement in the percentage of
68 instructional personnel evaluated at the highly effective or
69 effective level, and other leadership practices that result in
70 student learning growth. The system may include a means to give
71 parents and instructional personnel an opportunity to provide
72 input into the administrator’s performance evaluation.
73 4. Other indicators of performance.—For instructional
74 personnel and school administrators, the remainder of a
75 performance evaluation may include, but is not limited to,
76 professional and job responsibilities as recommended by the
77 State Board of Education or identified by the district school
78 board and, for instructional personnel, peer reviews,
79 objectively reliable survey information from students and
80 parents based on teaching practices that are consistently
81 associated with higher student achievement, and other valid and
82 reliable measures of instructional practice.
83 Section 2. Present subsection (6) of section 1012.55,
84 Florida Statutes, is redesignated as subsection (7), and a new
85 subsection (6) is added to that section, to read:
86 1012.55 Positions for which certificates required.—
87 (6) A person who is seeking employment as a school
88 counselor is exempt from the educator certification requirements
89 in s. 1012.56(2)(g) and (i). Such exemption does not preclude a
90 school district from requiring a certified school counselor to
91 satisfy the requirements of s. 1012.56(2)(g) and (i) as a
92 condition of employment.
93 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.
94
95 ================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T ================
96 And the title is amended as follows:
97 Delete everything before the enacting clause
98 and insert:
99 A bill to be entitled
100 An act relating to school counselors; amending s.
101 1012.34, F.S.; requiring that evaluation criteria for
102 certified school counselors be based on specified
103 standards; amending s. 1012.55, F.S.; providing that
104 persons seeking employment as school counselors are
105 exempt from specified educator certification
106 requirements; authorizing school districts to require
107 such persons to meet certain requirements as a
108 condition of employment; providing an effective date.