Page 4 - May 2017 Edconnect

Autism, Religion, Charter School Legislation Could Affect BPS
By Matt Reed, , assistant superintendent, Government and Community Relations
Several bills that could a ect Brevard Public Schools were poised to pass the Florida State House and Senate as lawmakers continued to wrestle over budgets and assessment reforms as the recent legislative session wrapped up.
Excused absences for autism treatment
This bill authorizes parents to request and be granted permission for student absences from school for treatment of autism spectrum disorder. Such treatment may include, but is not limited to, applied behavioral analysis, speech therapy and occupational therapy.
The bill allows a student with autism who is continually and repeatedly absent to satisfy a nonattendance requirement by being under the supervision of a licensed health care practitioner or a certi ed behavior analyst for the treatment of autism spectrum disorder.
Religious freedom in schools
This bill would speci cally allow students to:
• Express religious beliefs in written and oral assignments free from discrimination or penalties.
• Wear jewelry that displays a religious message or symbol to the same extent as secular types of jewelry that displays messages or symbols are permitted.
• Engage in and organize religious groups before, during, and after the school day in the same manner and to the same extent that secular student organizations and groups are permitted.
Meanwhile, the bill requires school districts to:
• Allow a religious group the same access to the same school facilities for assembling as given to a secular group and allow a religious or secular group to advertise or announce its meetings.
• Permit school personnel to participate in religious activities on school grounds that are student- initiated and at reasonable times before or after the school day as long as the activities are voluntary and do not con ict with the duties and responsibilities of such school personnel.
Revenue sharing with charter schools
This bill requires school districts to share revenue with charter schools from the property tax rate levied for construction and capital projects. This could cost BPS potentially $2.26 million a year in capital money. In essence, school-construction and renewal money would follow the students.
The legislation says the money may pay only for buildings owned by non-pro t organizations and school districts – not those owned by private, for-pro t lease-holders.
Expand ‘Best and Brightest’ bonuses for teachers and principals
The House has committed an additional $200 million to the Best and Brightest Scholarship Program, which pays bonuses to educators based on their old college entrance-exam scores. And both chambers have approved bills to increase the number of educators who can qualify to include principals.
Among the likely changes, according to recent legislative reports:
• Lowering the qualifying assessment score threshold from the 80th percentile to the 77th percentile based on the national percentile ranks in e ect when the classroom teacher took the SAT or ACT.
• Recognizing other national, standardized assessments that measure cognitive ability in lieu of the SAT or ACT. Those would include the LSAT, GRE, GMAT and MCAT.
• Allowing teachers to satisfy the highly e ective rating requirement based solely on their value-added score calculated by the DOE.
• Awarding to bonuses to principals who have: Led their schools for at least the last two consecutive school
years; and recruited
and retained a
faculty that has a ratio of best and brightest teachers to other classroom teachers that is at the 80th percentile or higher, statewide, for that school
type (elementary, middle, high, or combination).
Only $30 per semester
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