Florida SB 424: Educational Facilities

Bill Text

424 
Educational Facilities 
2025-11-07T07:08:23Z 
Deleting a provision authorizing a school of hope to colocate with another school in a public school facility; deleting a provision requiring a school district to permit a school of hope to use an underused, vacant, or surplus school district facility; deleting a requirement for students enrolled in a school of hope to be included in the school district’s total capital outlay full-time equivalent membership, etc. 
Original Filed Version 
2026 
S 
2026-07-01T00:00:00Z 
GB 
General Bill 
__ 

 Florida Senate - 2026 SB 424 

 By Senator Rouson 

 16-00641A-26 2026424__ 
 1 A bill to be entitled 
 2 An act relating to educational facilities; amending s. 
 3 1002.333, F.S.; revising definitions; deleting a 
 4 provision authorizing a school of hope to colocate 
 5 with another school in a public school facility; 
 6 deleting a provision requiring a school district to 
 7 permit a school of hope to use an underused, vacant, 
 8 or surplus school district facility; deleting a 
 9 requirement for students enrolled in a school of hope 
 10 to be included in the school district’s total capital 
 11 outlay full-time equivalent membership; deleting a 
 12 provision authorizing a hope operator establishing a 
 13 school of hope to use such a facility at no cost; 
 14 providing an effective date. 
 15 
 16 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
 17 
 18 Section 1. Paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (1) and 
 19 paragraphs (a) and (d) of subsection (7) of section 1002.333, 
 20 Florida Statutes, are amended to read: 
 21 1002.333 Persistently low-performing schools.— 
 22 (1) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term: 
 23 (c) “Persistently low-performing school” means a school 
 24 that meets at least one of the following criteria: 
 25 1. A school that has earned three grades lower than a “C,” 
 26 pursuant to s. 1008.34, in at least 3 of the previous 5 years 
 27 that the school received a grade and has not earned a grade of 
 28 “B” or higher in the most recent 2 school years; or 
 29 2. A school that was closed pursuant to s. 1008.33(4) 
 30 within 2 years after the submission of a notice of intent; or 
 31 3. A school in the bottom 10 percent in at least 2 of the 
 32 previous 3 years for student performance on the end-of-year 
 33 administration of the coordinated screening and progress 
 34 monitoring system for grade 3 English Language Arts or grade 4 
 35 mathematics as prescribed in s. 1008.22(3)(a)2. 
 36 (d) “School of hope” means: 
 37 1. A charter school operated by a hope operator which: 
 38 a. Serves students from one or more persistently low 
 39 performing schools or students who reside in a Florida 
 40 Opportunity Zone; and 
 41 b. Is located in a Florida Opportunity Zone or in the 
 42 attendance zone of a persistently low-performing school or 
 43 within a 5-mile radius of such school, whichever is greater. A 
 44 school of hope may be located outside of a Florida Opportunity 
 45 Zone or persistently low-performing school attendance zone if 
 46 the school district does not have underused, vacant, or surplus 
 47 property available for the hope operator to use within a Florida 
 48 Opportunity Zone or persistently low-performing school 
 49 attendance zone; and 
 50 c. Is a Title I eligible school; or 
 51 2. A school operated by a hope operator pursuant to s. 
 52 1008.33(4)(b)3. 
 53 (7) FACILITIES.— 
 54 (a) A school of hope shall use facilities that comply with 
 55 the Florida Building Code, except for the State Requirements for 
 56 Educational Facilities. A school of hope that uses school 
 57 district facilities must comply with the State Requirements for 
 58 Educational Facilities only if the school district and the hope 
 59 operator have entered into a mutual management plan for the 
 60 reasonable maintenance of such facilities. The mutual management 
 61 plan must shall contain a provision by which the district school 
 62 board agrees to maintain the school facilities in the same 
 63 manner as its other public schools within the district. A school 
 64 of hope may colocate with another school in a public school 
 65 facility. The school district must permit any school of hope to 
 66 use all or part of underused, vacant, or surplus school district 
 67 facilities, and receive facility-related services, pursuant to 
 68 State Board of Education rule. Students enrolled in the school 
 69 of hope shall be included in the district’s total capital outlay 
 70 full-time equivalent membership for the purpose of s. 1013.62 
 71 and for calculating the Public Education Capital Outlay 
 72 maintenance funds or any other maintenance funds for the 
 73 facility. The local governing authority may shall not adopt or 
 74 impose any local building requirements or site-development 
 75 restrictions, such as parking and site-size criteria, student 
 76 enrollment, and occupant load, that are addressed by and more 
 77 str