Florida public schools must teach cursive in grades three through five

Public schools must teach cursive writing. District school boards must require presidential portraits if lawmakers provide funding. Cursive instruction covers public school students in grades 3 through 5. The portraits must appear in a clearly visible place at each district public school. Students must write letters, words, and sentences clearly in cursive and read and use cursive in schoolwork. The portrait requirement depends on lawmakers providing money. The Florida Department of Education selects the portraits and makes them available to districts. These provisions took effect July 1, 2026.

School districts and charter schools may place current or retired teachers in schools rated D or F to mentor other teachers. Mentoring serves new teachers, teachers with low performance ratings listed in the law, and teachers their school administrator identifies as struggling with classroom behavior. Mentors need at least three years of teaching experience from prekindergarten through grade 12 and a highly effective rating on their most recent evaluation. A mentor may receive up to $3,000. Retired teachers may mentor up to five teachers at once; current teachers may mentor one. Money set aside for educational enrichment may support the program if funds are available. The Florida Department of Education must set program standards and a standard contract. Mentors must use accurate history, support fairness when using a curriculum, protect confidentiality unless law prohibits it, and focus on their mentees’ goals. The program took effect July 1, 2026. Each mentoring relationship lasts one grading period.

Covered private schools may use commercial or mixed-use districts without rezoning or certain other local approvals and requirements. The zoning permission covers schools with 150 or fewer students and schools outside city limits in counties covered by section 125.011. The building permission covers only schools with 150 or fewer students. Local governments may require traffic and pedestrian safety measures only for effects reasonably and directly tied to the school. Their cost and scope cannot exceed requirements for other uses in the same zoning district. A school may instead submit a traffic study showing no disproportionate effect compared with other allowed uses. Schools with 150 or fewer students may use existing gathering, day care, retail, or office buildings. They must meet fire safety standards for existing schools. A licensed engineer or architect’s fire safety evaluation showing at least equivalent safety counts as evidence of compliance. These permissions took effect July 1, 2026.

Florida Tax Credit Scholarship accounts must close for specified reasons, and remaining money returns to the scholarship organization. These rules cover Florida Tax Credit Scholarship accounts and the organizations that manage them. Reimbursements may continue until the balance is spent or the account closes. Closure follows denial or loss of eligibility for fraud or abuse, two consecutive fiscal years of inactivity, or 30 days without eligible private school enrollment when the scholarship requires full-time enrollment. Returned money must be tracked separately and used for scholarships that fiscal year. Leftover money may carry forward but must be fully spent on annual or partial-year scholarships in the following fiscal year. These rules took effect July 1, 2026. By July 1 each year, organizations must report the prior fiscal year’s closed accounts and returned money to the Florida Department of Education.

Covered charter schools cannot dismiss students for academic performance while carrying out a school improvement or corrective action plan. The restriction applies to charter schools that limit enrollment using academic, artistic, or other eligibility standards. A covered school must also place a student on a plan to track academic progress for at least one semester before dismissal. This restriction took effect July 1, 2026.