Florida schools must tell parents about missed disability services

School districts must explain missed disability services, paid blind-related service providers must disclose possible free alternatives, and employment service providers must meet state approval rules. These requirements cover school services listed in disability education plans, paid services for blind or visually impaired people, and providers offering employment-related services to people with disabilities. When a service listed in a student's individual education plan is missed, the district must explain why and discuss a make-up plan. It must tell parents at each plan meeting about their right to request service logs and progress notes. Before signing a contract or accepting payment, providers charging blind or visually impaired people must disclose whether equivalent or substantially similar services may be free through a public agency. The disclosure must use plain language, give Division of Blind Services contact information, and receive the consumer's or representative's signed or electronic acknowledgment. An accessible format is required on request. Violations carry penalties under rules against unfair or deceptive business practices. The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation sets minimum qualifications and an annual application period and may approve or deny applications. Providers must meet effectiveness standards to keep approval, including placing people in competitive jobs alongside workers without disabilities. The division must publish annual effectiveness reports and determine whether service rates are reasonable and necessary. Missed-service notices are due within 10 school days. Requested service records must be accessible within 15 school days after service delivery. The provider participation limit begins January 1, 2027.

Education officials must prepare career-focused algebra courses and a common weighted grading system. Schools must follow rules for course access, graduation credits, scholarship attendance, allergy medicine, and security choices. These provisions cover public school students and districts, participating private scholarship schools, and public or private schools that choose to stock emergency allergy medicine. The Department of Education must identify three math pathways and develop career-focused algebra courses. Students must be able to move between pathways. Courses must prepare students for the Algebra I test, meet graduation or middle school promotion requirements, and count toward state university admission. The department must provide teacher training, resources, and technical help. The State Board of Education must set a common system for giving extra grade weight to honors courses and programs that let students earn advanced credit. Districts must use it to calculate weighted high school grade point averages. Two years of marching band satisfy both the physical education and performing arts credit requirements. A qualifying one-credit dance techniques course with a grade of C or better satisfies either requirement. Neither option satisfies personal fitness or adaptive physical education requirements in a disability education plan. Public elementary and middle school students must have access to state digital skills certificates. Middle school students may earn no more than two per school year. Districts must inform families about approved online course providers and district online programs and give students access based on their choice, with credit for successful completion. Math pathways must be identified by September 1, 2026. Applied algebra courses must be developed by January 1, 2027, for district use in the 2029–2030 school year.

Colleges must follow rules for tuition eligibility, state oversight, accreditation, and dual enrollment. Eligible Florida resident students may defer their first Benacquisto scholarship award for up to one year. These rules cover Florida public colleges, certain independent colleges, tuition exemption applicants, residents serving outside Florida and their dependent children, and eligible Florida resident scholarship applicants. The homeless-student tuition and fee exemption requires an earlier homelessness finding by a Florida public school. It includes otherwise eligible students living in college dormitories and excludes online students living outside Florida. A prior award-year finding continues unless circumstances change or the institution has specific conflicting information and informs the student. Resident tuition status cannot be lost solely because a person, or a dependent student's parent, serves outside Florida in the armed forces, works on a State Department or Defense Department assignment, or teaches at a Defense Department dependent school. Dual enrollment covers eligible Florida secondary and home education students taking courses that count toward both high school completion and a college credential. Participating institutions are Florida public colleges and eligible nonprofit independent colleges. Participating students do not pay registration, tuition, or laboratory fees. Public colleges must seek and obtain a one-time accreditation change within three years after their current accreditor's review and before the next review. Accreditors must be federally recognized. Certain specialized programs are exempt. Colleges must report progress quarterly and may keep their current accreditor if they lack candidacy status by the next review. The accreditation requirements expire December 31, 2032. Eligible Florida resident Benacquisto applicants may defer their initial award for up to one year.

Schools must give families reading-program eligibility information. Preschool literacy support and child care quality designations follow stated score and responsibility rules. These provisions cover participating preschool children, families of students with serious reading difficulties, and child care facilities or homes seeking or holding a Gold Seal Quality Care designation. Children in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program who score below the 25th percentile on the final screening qualify for summer literacy support before kindergarten. The program must provide four hours of instruction per day and at least 100 hours in total. For students with serious reading difficulties, parent resources and monthly written progress updates must include eligibility information for the New Worlds Reading Initiative. For a child care provider to obtain or keep a Gold Seal Quality Care designation, the Department of Children and Families must determine whether the provider was the primary cause of a class I violation. Such a finding blocks eligibility based on violations in the preceding two years and provides grounds to end the designation until the provider has two years without class I violations. Summer literacy support occurs before kindergarten. Schools must send written reading progress updates at least monthly after the first notice. Gold Seal rules use a two-year violation period.

Districts must direct advanced-course funding to the schools that earn it and pay stated teacher bonuses. They may reserve limited Title I money for educational services. The funding formula covers Florida advanced courses in grades 9 through 12. The reserve rules cover eligible Title I schools, including charter schools. Advanced-course funding depends on annual state budget allocations. Each student meeting the state-set assessment score in a Florida advanced course counts as 0.16 additional full-time students for funding. Districts must send at least 80 percent of the resulting funds to the high school that generated them. Teachers receive $50 for each student in each Florida advanced course who meets the required assessment score. A teacher in a school graded D or F receives an additional $500 if at least one student meets that score, regardless of the number of classes or successful students. Districts may reserve a necessary and reasonable amount, up to one percent of Title I money, for educational services under an approved plan. Services may include science and technology instruction, materials, and learning tools. All required federal reserves must be met, and school allocations cannot fall below federal requirements. Title I reserves may also cover transportation for foster care children to their school of origin or choice programs. Title I is federal education funding for eligible schools serving low-income students. Qualifying advanced-course assessment results count toward funding in the following fiscal year. The law's general effective date is July 1, 2026.