The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Education Pre-K -12
BILL: CS/SB 822
INTRODUCER: Education Pre-K - 12 Committee and Senator Rodriguez
SUBJECT: Education
DATE: April 1, 2025
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Sabitsch Bouck ED Fav/CS
2. AED
3. RC
Please see Section IX. for Additional Information:
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE - Substantial Changes
I. Summary:
CS/SB 844 modifies numerous provisions related to charter schools, high performing charter
schools and disposal of real property by school districts. Specifically, the bill:
• Limits the administrative deadlines a sponsor can impose on a charter school.
• Allows a charter school to adopt its own code of student conduct with certain restrictions.
• Modifies priority enrollment provisions for eligible charter school students related to
prekindergarten participation.
• Requires charter schools to comply with parental notification requirements related to student
well-being.
• Allows charter schools meeting certain conditions to increase enrollment capacity to more
than what is specified in the charter without exceeding the capacity of the facility and
requiring notice to the sponsor.
• Requires that access to the sponsor’s student information system as allowed by law be
provided to the charter school or its contractor and specifies the performance data to be
accessed.
• Requires that the Department of Education provide student performance data to the charter
school and its contractor as allowed by law.
• Adds a prohibition for the landlord or other associated individuals of a charter school to serve
on a governing board of that charter school.
• Allows a high-performing charter school to assume the charter of an existing charter school
in the same school district under certain circumstances.
REVISED: BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 2
The bill takes effect on July 1, 2025.
II. Present Situation:
Florida’s Charter Schools
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools created through an agreement or “charter” that
provides flexibility relative to regulations for traditional public schools. During the 2022-2023
school year, 382,367 students were enrolled in 726 charter schools in 46 school districts.1 In
general, charter schools are exempt for most Florida laws that govern public schools. The
specific regulations that charter schools must comply with are named in law.2 Charter school
governing board members are provided with requirements regarding standards of conduct and
financial disclosure.3
Charter schools are open to all students residing within the district; however, charter schools are
allowed to target students within specific age groups or grade levels, students considered at-risk
of dropping out or failing, students wishing to enroll in a charter school-in-the-workplace or
charter school-in-a-municipality, students residing within a reasonable distance of the school,
students who meet reasonable academic, artistic or other eligibility standards established by the
charter school, or students articulating from one charter school to another.
4
Charter schools are created when an individual, a group of parents or teachers, a business, a
municipality, or a legal entity applies to the school district; the school district approves the
application; the applicants form a governing board that negotiates a contract with the district
school board; and the applicants and district school board agree upon a charter or contract. The
district school board then becomes the sponsor of the charter school. The negotiated contract
outlines the expectations of both parties regarding the school's academic and financial
performance.
5
Charter schools are required to employ or contract with employees who have undergone
background screening that is the same as required for school district employees.
6
Members of the
governing board of a charter school are also required to undergo similar background screening.
A charter school must be organized as, or be operated by, a nonprofit organization. The charter
school may serve at-risk students, or offer a specialized curriculum or core academic program,
provide early intervention programs, or serve exceptional education students.
7
Charter schools
1
Florida Department of Education, Office of Independent Education & Parental Choice, Fact Sheet Florida’s Charter
Schools (October 2023), available at https:https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7696/urlt/Charter-Sept-2022.pdf.
2
Section 1002.33(16), F.S.
3
Section 1002.33(26), F.S.
4
Florida Department of Education, Frequently Asked Questions (Charter Schools), https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-
choice/charter-schools/charter-school-faqs.stml (last visited Mar. 3, 2025). See also s. 1002.33(10), F.S.
5
Florida Department of Education, Frequently Asked Questions (Charter Schools), https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-
choice/charter-schools/charter-school-faqs.stml (last visited Mar. 3, 2025). See also s. 1002.33(6), F.S.
6
Section 1002.33(12)(g), F.S.
7
Florida Department of Education, Frequently Asked Questions (Charter Schools), https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-
choice/charter-schools/charter-school-faqs.stml (last visited Mar. 3, 2025). See also s. 1002.33(6), F.S. BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 3
are permitted to give preference for enrollment to certain student populations that include
students who are:
8
• Siblings of a student enrolled in the charter school.
• Children of a member of the governing board of the charter school.
• Children of an employee of the charter school.
• Children of specific residents or employees related to a charter school-in-the-workplace or a
charter school-in-a-municipality.
• Students who have successfully completed, during the previous year, a voluntary
prekindergarten (VPK) education program provided by the charter school, the charter
school’s governing board, or a VPK provider that has a written agreement with the governing
board.
• Children of an active duty member of any branch of the United States Armed Forces.
• Students who attended or are assigned to failing schools.
• Children of a safe-school officer at the school.
• Students who transfer from a classical school in this state to a charter classical school in this
state.
All charter applicants must prepare and submit an application on a model application form
prepared by the Department of Education (DOE), which:
9
• Demonstrates how the school will use the guiding principles.
• Provides a detailed curriculum.
• Contains goals and objectives for improving student learning.
• Describes the separate reading curricula and differentiated strategies.
• Contains an annual financial plan.
A school board is required to review all charter school applications and, within 90 days of
receipt, approve or deny the application.
10
A charter school may be sponsored by any of the following:
11
• A district school board.
• A state university approved to sponsor certain lab schools.
• A state university approved by the DOE.
• Florida College System institution approved by the DOE.
Each charter school sponsor is provided with duties specified in law.
12
The charter school
sponsor is tasked with performing the following:
• Monitor and review the charter school in its progress toward the goals established in the
charter.
8
Section 1002.33(10)(d), F.S.
9
Florida Department of Education, Frequently Asked Questions (Charter Schools), https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-
choice/charter-schools/charter-school-faqs.stml (last visited Mar. 3, 2025). See also s. 1002.33(6), F.S.
10
Florida Department of Education, Frequently Asked Questions (Charter Schools), https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-
choice/charter-schools/charter-school-faqs.stml (last visited Feb. 11, 2025). See also s. 1002.33(6), F.S.
11
Section 1002.33(5), F.S.
12
Section 1002.33(5)(b), F.S. BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 4
• Monitor the revenues and expenditures of the charter school and perform the duties related to
deteriorating financial conditions of charter schools.
• Approve a charter before the applicant has identified space, equipment, or personnel, when
necessary.
• Ensure that the charter is innovative and consistent with the state education goals established
in Florida law.
• Ensure that the charter school participates in the state’s education accountability system and
report any shortcoming to the DOE.
13
Charter school sponsors are also subject to additional provisions, specifically the sponsor:
14
• Cannot apply its policies to a charter school unless mutually agreed to by both the sponsor
and the charter school.
• Is not liable for civil damages under state law for personal injury, property damage, or death
resulting from an act or omission of an officer, employee, agent, or governing body of the
charter school.
• Is not liable for civil damages under state law for any employment actions taken by an
officer, employee, agent, or governing body of the charter school.
• By monitoring the charter school that does not constitute the basis for a private cause of
action.
• Cannot impose additional reporting requirements on a charter school except when the charter
school has been identified as having a deteriorating financial condition or a financial
emergency.
• Is required to submit an annual report to the DOE in a web-based format determined by the
DOE.
The charter agreement is a written agreement that sets forth the terms and conditions for the
operation of a charter school, including a virtual charter school, by the sponsor and the applicant.
The sponsor and the governing board of the charter school are required to use the standard
charter contract or standard virtual charter contract. The charter must be signed by the governing
board of the charter school and the sponsor, following a public hearing.
15
The charter agreement
is required to include or address the following elements:
• The school’s mission, the types of students to be served, and, for a virtual charter school, the
types of students the school intends to serve who reside outside of the sponsoring school
district.
• The ages and grades to be served.
• The focus of the curriculum, the instructional methods to be used, any distinctive
instructional techniques to be employed, and identification and acquisition of appropriate
technologies needed to improve educational and administrative performance.
• Ensure that reading is a primary focus. The curriculum and instructional strategies for
reading must be consistent with the state’s academic standards and grounded in scientifically
based reading research.
• Ensure that mathematics is a focus of the curriculum.
13
Section 1002.33(5)(b), F.S.
14
Id.
15
Section 1002.33(7), F.S. BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 5
• Facilitate the integration of technology within traditional classroom instruction.
• The current incoming baseline standard of student academic achievement, the outcomes to be
achieved, and the method of measurement that will be used.
• The methods used to identify the educational strengths and needs of students and how well
educational goals and performance standards are met by students attending the charter
school.
• A method for determining that a student has satisfied the requirements for graduation.
• A method for resolving conflicts between the governing board of the charter school and the
sponsor.
• Admissions procedures and dismissal procedures, including the school’s code of student
conduct.
• The ways by which the school will achieve a racial/ethnic balance that reflects the
community it serves.
• The financial and administrative management of the school.
• The asset and liability projections of the charter school.
• A description of procedures to reduce the impact of losses; plans to ensure the safety and
security of students and staff; and the way the school will be insured.
• The term of the charter.
• The facilities to be used and their location.
• The qualifications of the teachers and the potential strategies used to recruit, hire, train, and
retain qualified staff.
• The governance structure of the school.
• A timetable for implementing the charter.
• In the case of an existing public school that is being converted to charter status, alternative
arrangements for current students who choose not to attend the charter school.
• Full disclosure of the identity of all relatives employed by the charter school who are related
to the charter school owner, president, chairperson of the governing board of directors,
superintendent, governing board member, principal, assistant principal, or any other person
employed by the charter school who has equivalent decision-making authority.
• Implementation of the activities of a charter school determined to be a high-performing
charter school.
16
High Performing Charter Schools
A high-performing charter school is a school that has met each of the following criteria:
17
• Received at least two school grades of "A" and no school grade below "B" for the last three
years or received at least two consecutive school grades of “A” in the most recent two school
years.
• Received an unqualified opinion on each annual audit in the most recent three years for
which such audits are available
16
Section 1002.33(7), F.S.
17
Florida Department of Education, Frequently Asked Questions (Charter Schools), https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-
choice/charter-schools/charter-school-faqs.stml (last visited Mar. 26, 2025). See also s. 1002.331, F.S. BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 6
• Has not received a financial audit that revealed one or more of the financial emergency
conditions set described in Florida law
18
in the most three recent fiscal years for which audits
are available or for initial eligibility, for the most recent two fiscal years if the charter school
has earned two consecutive grades of “A.”
19
High performance charter schools are allowed additional considerations that include:
20
• Increasing the school’s student enrollment once per school year to more than the capacity
identified in the charter but limited to the capacity of the facility.
• Expanding grade levels within kindergarten through grade 12 to add grade levels not already
served.
• Submitting a quarterly, rather than a monthly, financial statement to the sponsor.
• Consolidation under a single charter the charters of multiple high-performing charter schools
operated in the same school district by the charter schools’ governing board.
• Receiving a modification of its charter to a term of 15 years or a 15-year charter renewal.
Student Code of Conduct
Each district school board is required to adopt a code of student conduct for elementary schools
and a code of student conduct for middle and high schools.
21
The school district is required to
distribute the codes to all teachers, school personnel, students, and parents, at the beginning of
every school year. The code of conduct is required to be made available in the student handbook
or a similar publication. Each code is required to include the following elements:
22
• Consistent policies and specific grounds for disciplinary action for the possession or use of
alcohol.
• Procedures to be followed for acts requiring discipline, including corporal punishment.
• Responsibilities and rights of students with regard to attendance, respect for persons and
property, knowledge and observation of rules of conduct, the right to learn, free speech and
student publications, assembly, privacy, and participation in school programs and activities.
• Responsibilities of each student with regard to appropriate dress, respect for self and others.
• Notice that illegal use, possession, or sale of controlled substances is grounds for disciplinary
action by the school and can result in criminal penalties being imposed.
• Notice regarding use of a wireless communications device.
• Notice regarding the possession of a firearm or weapon.
• Notice regarding violence against any district school board personnel,
• Notice regarding violation of district school board transportation policies.
• Notice regarding violation of the district school board sexual harassment policy.
• Policies regarding the assignment of violent or disruptive students to an alternative
educational program and referral to mental health services.
• Notice regarding a student having made a threat or false report involving school or school
personnel’s property, school transportation, or a school-sponsored activity.
18
Section 208.503, F.S.
19
Id.
20
Section 1002.331(2), F.S.
21
Section 1006.07(2), F.S.
22
Section 1006.07(2)(a)-(o), F.S. BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 7
• Criteria for recommending to law enforcement participation in a prearrest delinquency
citation program as an alternative to expulsion or arrest.
• Criteria for assigning a student who commits a petty act of misconduct to a school-based
intervention program.
Charter schools are not subject to the district school board adopted policies for code of conduct.
23
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
CS/SB 844 modifies numerous provisions related to charter schools including administrative,
enrollment, control of students, student safety, facilities, and high-performing charter schools.
The bill modifies s. 1002.33, F.S., which:
• Prohibits a charter school sponsor from imposing upon a charter school administrative
deadlines that are earlier than the sponsor’s own corresponding deadlines for similar reports
or submissions. The bill prohibits any deadline imposed upon a charter school for financial
audits or other administrative requirements that is earlier than 15 days before the sponsor’s
own deadline for similar submissions to the Department of Education (DOE).
• Allows a charter school meeting certain criteria to increase its student enrollment to more
than the capacity identified in the charter, as long as the increase does not exceed the facility
capacity, including new or expanded facilities. The bill requires the charter school to notify
its sponsor by March 1 if the school intends to increase enrollment capacity in the following
school year and is required to specify the amount of increase..
• Allows a charter school governing board to adopt its own code of student conduct, which the
sponsor may review and offer recommendations. The code of student conduct must meet or
exceed the minimum standards in the sponsor’s code of student conduct. If a provision of the
code of student conduct is more stringent than the sponsor’s code of student conduct it must
align with the mission of the charter school. The bill requires that any complaint or appeal
related to the code of student conduct has to be resolved by the charter school’s governing
board using the board’s established procedures and must be in compliance with applicable
law and rules.
• Removes the reference for priority enrollment in charter schools that specifically referred to
Voluntary Prekindergaten (VPK) and allows for any child completing a prekindergarten
program that meets certain conditions to have a priority.
• Requires charter schools to comply with s. 1001.42(8)(c), F.S., regarding procedures for
notification of a student’s parents related to a student’s mental, emotional, or physical well-
being.
• Requires that the sponsor and the DOE ensure that student data, including student assessment
data, are promptly and efficiently shared with charter schools, including a charter school’s
contractor. The sponsor or the DOE must comply with law that may limit sharing or
providing data.
• Adds a requirement that a landlord of a charter school or his or her spouse or an officer,
director, or employee of an entity that is a landlord of a charter school or his or her spouse
may not be a member of a governing board of a charter school unless the charter school was
established as a charter school-in-a-municipality.
23
Section 1002.33(16), F.S. BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 8
The bill modifies s. 1002.331, F.S., to allow a high performing charter school to assume the
charter of an existing charter school within the same school district in which the high-performing
charter school operates. The request to be assumed is required to be initiated by the school being
assumed and is required to be in writing to the high performing charter school.
The bill takes effect on July 1, 2025.
IV. Constitutional Issues:
A. Municipality/County Mandates Restrictions:
None.
B. Public Records/Open Meetings Issues:
None.
C. Trust Funds Restrictions:
None.
D. State Tax or Fee Increases:
None.
E. Other Constitutional Issues:
None.
V. Fiscal Impact Statement:
A. Tax/Fee Issues:
None.
B. Private Sector Impact:
None.
C. Government Sector Impact:
This bill does not impact state revenues or expenditures.
VI. Technical Deficiencies:
None.
VII. Related Issues:
None. BILL: CS/SB 822 Page 9
VIII. Statutes Affected:
This bill substantially amends the following sections of the Florida Statutes: 1002.33 and
1002.331.
IX. Additional Information:
A. Committee Substitute – Statement of Substantial Changes:
(Summarizing differences between the Committee Substitute and the prior version of the bill.)
CS by Education Pre-K – 12 on March 31, 2025:
The committee substitute maintained numerous provisions from the bill related to charter
schools, with some modifications, related to the authority of a charter school to increase
its enrollment subject to facility capacity, priorities for prekindergarten enrollment,
district and Department of Education sharing of data with charter schools or their
contractors, and charter school charters being assumed by high performing charter
schools. Additionally, the committee substitute removed provisions in the bill that:
• Allowed a charter school to assign its charter to a not-for-profit board of another
charter school.
• Allowed for a charter school to conduct background screening independent of the
sponsor’s screening procedures.
• Allowed charter schools to use land owned by specified entities and that met certain
criteria without rezoning or change in land use designation.
• Clarified provisions in law related to conduct and financial disclosure for certain
charter school transactions.
• Provided legislative intent concerning real property and set requirements regarding
disposal of real property by school districts. Provided certain rights to charter schools
regarding real property being disposed of be a school district.
B. Amendments:
None.
This Senate Bill Analysis does not reflect the intent or official position of the bill’s introducer or the Florida Senate.