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School board narrows legislative platform; members push to lower chronic-absence trigger and adjust kindergarten hours
Summary
Board members discussed and directed staff to refine the district’s legislative requests, including proposals to lower the threshold that triggers chronic-absence intervention from 10 unexcused absences to five, and to align kindergarten instructional hours with grades 1–3.
Board Member Dr. Lisonbee Campbell presented proposed legislative priorities and asked the board to refine language ahead of several meetings with state legislators. Campbell recommended separating two attendance-related proposals: (1) a statutory change allowing districts to initiate chronic-absence strategies sooner than current language and (2) a related change to kindergarten instructional hours.
Campbell told the board she would seek to amend Fla. Stat. §1003.26 (subsection 1(b) language discussed in prior sessions) to allow earlier district intervention for chronic absenteeism. After discussion among board members and legislators’ staff, the board coalesced around a proposal to ask legislators to consider lowering the trigger point from 10 unexcused absences to five unexcused absences (board consensus in meeting discussion) so districts could initiate strategies sooner.
Campbell also recommended revising Rule 6A-1.09512 to increase kindergarten net instructional hours from 540 to 720, effectively aligning kindergarten with grades 1–3 and making attendance and instructional requirements more consistent. Board members discussed whether to pursue a change to the state’s compulsory attendance age (current law and past proposals referenced), and several members concurred that adjusting instructional hours for kindergarten may be a pragmatic first step.
Other items Campbell proposed for the legislative platform included removing gifted education from Fla. Stat. §1003.57 to create a stand-alone gifted-education statute with definitions, identification standards and funding, and adjusting the FEFP transportation rurality index to increase funding for large, sparsely populated districts.
Board direction The board asked staff to prepare a revised legislative packet incorporating the refined language — including a draft that reduces the chronic-absence trigger to five unexcused absences and language proposing kindergarten instructional hours of 720 net hours — so the superintendent’s staff and legislative liaisons could provide a finalized draft before meetings with lawmakers. Board members agreed staff could circulate an updated draft to the board and the district’s legislative contacts before the next meeting.
