Today, Governor Rick Scott sent a letter to Florida superintendents and school board members outlining the next steps to take following the signing of SB 7026, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. During the Governor’s time in office, funding for Florida’s K-12 public schools has increased dramatically.
Opening the letter Scott said, “Last month, seventeen innocent lives were lost during a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. Since then, our entire state has come together to find ways to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again, including the immediate need to increase safety at each school in Florida. Immediately following the shooting, I convened emergency meetings in Tallahassee with education officials, mental health experts, and law enforcement experts to develop a course of action to improve school safety. These meetings, in concert with the work of the Florida Legislature, produced a new law that I signed on March 9, 2018 – the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.”
The letter continues, “Working with the Legislature, the upcoming state budget makes historic investments in our schools to ensure that districts have the resources needed to keep our students and teachers safe. The Securing Florida’s Future budget for Fiscal Year 2018-219 provides an additional $484 million increase for operating funding for K-12 public schools. For the third straight year, per-pupil funding in Florida is at a record high, $7,408 per-pupil. Additionally, the budget, along with the funding provided in SB 7026, provides hundreds of millions of dollars and the flexibility needed to make each school safe.”
Governor Scott outlined the following points in the letter to superintendents and school board members:
- By May 1, 2018, the Florida Department of Education will hire a Director for their newly created Office of Safe Schools.
- Upon SB 7026 becoming law, the Department of Education (DOE) immediately began working to implement active shooter training so each teacher, student, faculty members and school safety officer knows what to do during a crisis. This training must be done at least every semester.
- By July 1, 2018, superintendents must designate a district School Safety Specialist.
- By August 1, 2018, each school district must complete a security risk assessment for each public school campus. The assessment must be conducted in consultation with local law enforcement. Although the $99 million in funding for school hardening will be distributed as quickly as possible, school districts should use existing funding to make any critical safety improvements immediately.
- Before the start of the 218-2019 school year, DOE will begin to identify a security consulting firm for the independent, third-party review of the Florida Safe School Assessment Tool, as required by the new law.
- By September 1, 2018, each school should establish a threat assessment team with expertise in mental health counseling, academic instruction, law enforcement and school administration that will meet monthly to review any potential threats to students and staff at the school.
- By July 1, 2018, I expect each school board, in coordination with their County Sheriff to determine how many people they intend to train using the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program. This program is 10 percent voluntary. Once participating decisions have been made, DOE will work with my office and the Legislature to redirect any unused funding from this program to hire additional school officers.
- In the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, Florida schools were provided $97.5 million to hire additional school safety officers. My expectation is that there is at least one school safety officer at each school at the beginning of the 2018-2019.
- Before the start of the 2018-2019 school year, DOE will establish a youth mental awareness and assistance training program to train school personnel to better identify signs of mental illness in students and how to seek the proper treatment.
- In the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, Florida schools were provided $69 million to establish or expand school-based mental health care. Our expectation is that each student in Florida has access to a mental health professional at school by the 2018-2019 school year.