Florida SB 1036: Reclassification of Criminal Penalties

Bill Text

1036 
School Counselors 
2026-02-19T03:36:59Z 
Requiring that evaluation criteria for certified school counselors be based on specified standards; providing that persons seeking employment as school counselors are exempt from specified educator certification requirements, etc. 
Committee Substitute 2 
2026 
S 
2026-07-01T00:00:00Z 
GB 
General Bill 
c2 

 Florida Senate - 2026 CS for CS for SB 1036 

 By the Committees on Rules; and Education Pre-K - 12; and 
 Senator Calatayud 

 595-02934-26 20261036c2 
 1 A bill to be entitled 
 2 An act relating to school counselors; amending s. 
 3 1012.34, F.S.; requiring that evaluation criteria for 
 4 certified school counselors be based on specified 
 5 standards; amending s. 1012.55, F.S.; providing that 
 6 persons seeking employment as school counselors are 
 7 exempt from specified educator certification 
 8 requirements; authorizing school districts to require 
 9 such persons to meet certain requirements as a 
 10 condition of employment; providing an effective date. 
 11 
 12 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
 13 
 14 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of section 
 15 1012.34, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 
 16 1012.34 Personnel evaluation procedures and criteria.— 
 17 (3) EVALUATION PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA.—Instructional 
 18 personnel and school administrator performance evaluations must 
 19 be based upon the performance of students assigned to their 
 20 classrooms or schools, as provided in this section. Pursuant to 
 21 this section, a school district’s performance evaluation system 
 22 is not limited to basing unsatisfactory performance of 
 23 instructional personnel and school administrators solely upon 
 24 student performance, but may include other criteria to evaluate 
 25 instructional personnel and school administrators’ performance, 
 26 or any combination of student performance and other criteria. 
 27 Evaluation procedures and criteria must comply with, but are not 
 28 limited to, the following: 
 29 (a) A performance evaluation must be conducted for each 
 30 employee at least once a year, except that a classroom teacher, 
 31 as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a), excluding substitute teachers, 
 32 who is newly hired by the district school board must be observed 
 33 and evaluated at least twice in the first year of teaching in 
 34 the school district. The performance evaluation must be based 
 35 upon sound educational principles and contemporary research in 
 36 effective educational practices. The evaluation criteria must 
 37 include: 
 38 1. Performance of students.—At least one-third of a 
 39 performance evaluation must be based upon data and indicators of 
 40 student performance, as determined by each school district. This 
 41 portion of the evaluation must include growth or achievement 
 42 data of the teacher’s students or, for a school administrator, 
 43 the students attending the school over the course of at least 3 
 44 years. If less than 3 years of data are available, the years for 
 45 which data are available must be used. The proportion of growth 
 46 or achievement data may be determined by instructional 
 47 assignment. 
 48 2. Instructional practice.—For instructional personnel, at 
 49 least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based upon 
 50 instructional practice. Evaluation criteria used when annually 
 51 observing classroom teachers, as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a), 
 52 excluding substitute teachers, must include indicators based 
 53 upon each of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices adopted 
 54 by the State Board of Education. 
 55 a. For instructional personnel who are not classroom 
 56 teachers or certified school counselors, evaluation criteria 
 57 must be based upon indicators of the Florida Educator 
 58 Accomplished Practices and may include specific job expectations 
 59 related to student support. 
 60 b. For certified school counselors, evaluation criteria 
 61 must be based upon indicators of the Florida School Counseling 
 62 Standards adopted by the State Board of Education. 
 63 c. This section does not preclude a school administrator 
 64 from visiting and observing classroom teachers throughout the 
 65 school year for purposes of providing mentorship, training, 
 66 instructional feedback, or professional learning. 
 67 3. Instructional leadership.—For school administrators, at 
 68 least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based on 
 69 instructional leadership. Evaluation criteria for instructional 
 70 leadership must include indicators based upon each of the 
 71 leadership standards adopted by the State Board of Education 
 72 under s. 1012.986, including performance measures related to the 
 73 effectiveness of classroom teachers in the school, the 
 74 administrator’s appropriate use of evaluation criteria and 
 75 procedures, recruitment and retention of effective and highly 
 76 effective classroom teachers, imp