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The Florida Senate

2015 Florida Statutes

Title XLVIII K-20 EDUCATION CODE
Chapter 1006 SUPPORT FOR LEARNING Entire Chapter
SECTION 28
Duties of district school board, district school superintendent; and school principal regarding K-12 instructional materials.
F.S. 1006.28
1006.28 Duties of district school board, district school superintendent; and school principal regarding K-12 instructional materials.—
(1) DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD.—The district school board has the constitutional duty and responsibility to select and provide adequate instructional materials for all students in accordance with the requirements of this part. The term “adequate instructional materials” means a sufficient number of student or site licenses or sets of materials that are available in bound, unbound, kit, or package form and may consist of hardbacked or softbacked textbooks, electronic content, consumables, learning laboratories, manipulatives, electronic media, and computer courseware or software that serve as the basis for instruction for each student in the core subject areas of mathematics, language arts, social studies, science, reading, and literature. The district school board has the following specific duties and responsibilities:
(a) Courses of study; adoption.—Adopt courses of study, including instructional materials, for use in the schools of the district.
1. Each district school board is responsible for the content of all instructional materials used in a classroom, whether adopted and purchased from the state-adopted instructional materials list, adopted and purchased through a district instructional materials program under s. 1006.283, or otherwise purchased or made available in the classroom.
2. Each district school board must adopt a policy regarding a parent’s objection to his or her child’s use of a specific instructional material, which clearly describes a process to handle all objections and provides for resolution.
3. Each district school board must establish a process by which the parent of a public school student may contest the district school board’s adoption of a specific instructional material. The parent must file a petition, on a form provided by the school board, within 30 calendar days after the adoption of the material by the school board. The school board must make the form available to the public and publish the form on the school district’s website. The form must be signed by the parent, include the required contact information, and state the objection to the instructional material. Within 30 days after the 30-day period has expired, the school board must conduct at least one open public hearing on all petitions timely received and provide the petitioner written notification of the date and time of the hearing at least 7 days before the hearing. All instructional materials contested must be made accessible online to the public at least 7 days before a public hearing. The school board’s decision after convening a hearing is final and not subject to further petition or review.
(b) Instructional materials.—Provide for proper requisitioning, distribution, accounting, storage, care, and use of all instructional materials and furnish such other instructional materials as may be needed. Instructional materials used must be consistent with the district goals and objectives and the course descriptions established in rule of the State Board of Education, as well as with the applicable Next Generation Sunshine State Standards provided for in s. 1003.41.
(c) Other instructional materials.—Provide such other teaching accessories and aids as are needed for the school district’s educational program.
(d) School library media services; establishment and maintenance.—Establish and maintain a program of school library media services for all public schools in the district, including school library media centers, or school library media centers open to the public, and, in addition such traveling or circulating libraries as may be needed for the proper operation of the district school system.
(2) DISTRICT SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT.—
(a) The district school superintendent has the duty to recommend such plans for improving, providing, distributing, accounting for, and caring for instructional materials and other instructional aids as will result in general improvement of the district school system, as prescribed in this part, in accordance with adopted district school board rules prescribing the duties and responsibilities of the district school superintendent regarding the requisition, purchase, receipt, storage, distribution, use, conservation, records, and reports of, and management practices and property accountability concerning, instructional materials, and providing for an evaluation of any instructional materials to be requisitioned that have not been used previously in the district’s schools. The district school superintendent must keep adequate records and accounts for all financial transactions for funds collected pursuant to subsection (3).
(b) Each district school superintendent shall notify the department by April 1 of each year the state-adopted instructional materials that will be requisitioned for use in his or her school district. The notification shall include a district school board plan for instructional materials use to assist in determining if adequate instructional materials have been requisitioned.
(3) SCHOOL PRINCIPAL.—The school principal has the following duties for the management and care of instructional materials at the school:
(a) Proper use of instructional materials.—The principal shall assure that instructional materials are used to provide instruction to students enrolled at the grade level or levels for which the materials are designed, pursuant to adopted district school board rule. The school principal shall communicate to parents the manner in which instructional materials are used to implement the curricular objectives of the school.
(b) Money collected for lost or damaged instructional materials; enforcement.—The school principal shall collect from each student or the student’s parent the purchase price of any instructional material the student has lost, destroyed, or unnecessarily damaged and to report and transmit the money collected to the district school superintendent. The failure to collect such sum upon reasonable effort by the school principal may result in the suspension of the student from participation in extracurricular activities or satisfaction of the debt by the student through community service activities at the school site as determined by the school principal, pursuant to policies adopted by district school board rule.
(c) Sale of instructional materials.—The school principal, upon request of the parent of a student in the school, shall sell to the parent any instructional materials used in the school. All such sales shall be made pursuant to rule adopted by the district school board, and the principal shall annually provide information to parents that they may purchase instructional materials and how to purchase the materials.
(d) Disposition of funds.—All money collected from the sale, exchange, loss, or damage of instructional materials shall be transmitted to the district school superintendent to be deposited in the district school board fund and added to the district appropriation for instructional materials.
(e) Accounting for instructional materials.—Principals shall see that all instructional materials are fully and properly accounted for as prescribed by adopted rules of the district school board.
History.—s. 303, ch. 2002-387; s. 18, ch. 2009-59; s. 1, ch. 2009-222; s. 17, ch. 2010-154; s. 18, ch. 2011-55; s. 1, ch. 2013-237; s. 1, ch. 2014-15; s. 60, ch. 2014-39.