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Lee County Schools staff outline 2025 legislative priorities including funding, certification changes and school safety
Summary
Staff previewed district 2025 legislative priorities: administrative efficiency, increased per-student funding, East Zone CTE appropriation, safe-schools allocation, changes to social-worker certification requirements, stronger financial tracking, and inclusion of pre-K in DOE schoolhouse calculations.
District government-relations staff Christina Houlihan and Riley Kempton presented the Lee County Schools' 2025 legislative priorities to the board on Jan. 7. Staff said priorities arose from individual board member input, cabinet review and consultation with lobbyists and would be carried to Tallahassee during the upcoming session.
Major asks include: an administrative-efficiency agenda to reduce regulatory burdens; a requested per-student funding increase of at least 5% (from $8,959 to a projected $9,431 per student for FY2026); a $2.5 million appropriation to support a career and technical education (CTE) college-community partnership for the East Zone and continued work on the East Zone technical college; and statutory support allowing districts to set school start times based on local input (the staff noted this item is separate from the transportation operational proposal presented that day). Safety priorities include increasing the safe-schools allocation, supporting implementation of House Bill 1473, and a $5 million appropriation for security system upgrades.
On staffing and certification, the district seeks a statutory change to exempt school social workers from the requirement to pass the Florida Teacher Certification exam (the PECO/FTCE) and to simplify relicensure requirements for educators who leave employment and later seek recertification. Financial initiatives include seeking real-time student/financial tracking solutions (DOE RFI) and increasing the mental-health allocation. Staff also requested funding through the high-growth district capital-outlay assistance grant and asked the legislature to include district preschool classes in the DOE—ount for the Florida inventory of schoolhouses.
Board members asked for data on social-worker certification impacts (staff agreed to provide numbers) and expressed support for several asks. Staff reported early survey numbers on district start-time preferences (1,624 staff responses and 4,437 parent responses) and said they would extend the survey and deliver summary results before Tallahassee meetings.
