Schools

One provision of a sweeping state education law allows for a library, community service organization, museum, performing arts venue, theater, cinema or church to house a school.

This week on The Florida Roundup, we discuss how districts are considering school closures due to shrinking enrollment, the impact of Florida’s anti-immigration laws one year later, a series of reports about Florida’s Wildlife Corridor and the 2021 Law to conserve millions of more acres.

The governor also signed measures on school safety that strengthens perimeters and to help stop sex trafficking at massage establishments.

The program will allow graduates to become credentialed as school psychologists by the Florida Department of Education and become nationally certified school psychologists.

Supporters of the measure say allowing chaplains would add another tool to help schools address children’s mental health issues. The bill would need approval from the Senate.

In the wake of six measles cases at a Broward school, Florida's surgeon general writes that the Department of Health “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance” without urging the need for MMR vaccinations.

So far, it’s not known whether the students who acquired the highly contagious virus at Manatee Bay Elementary were immunized with the two-dose MMR vaccine.

The health department is looking into five cases of the highly contagious disease at Manatee Bay Elementary in Weston and hoping to identify contacts at risk of transmission.

In 2023, HB 1069 took effect in Florida. The law made it easier to challenge any book that was pornagraphic, depicted sex or was age inappropriate.

Advocates say schools nationwide are misusing the practice in response to behaviors prompted by bullying or frustration over assignments. The hospital trips for psych evals, they say, often follow months of students' needs not being met.

Hundreds of thousands of students face challenges learning math due to disabilities such as dyscalculia, a neurodevelopmental learning disorder. They often face obstacles to getting help.

Children across the greater Tampa Bay region are heading back to school later this week. The executive director of the Children's Board of Hillsborough County has advice on how to help kids get back into the swing of things.