The State Board of Education held an emergency meeting by conference call to which all persons were invited.
DATE AND TIME: July 29, 2019, 9:00 a.m.
PLACE: Conference Call: 1(800)367-2403, Passcode: 7435742.
GENERAL SUBJECT MATTER TO BE CONSIDERED: This meeting was noticed on the agency’s web site, in the F.A.R. and to the media through the agency’s state-wide media distribution list. The meeting was open to the public and the emergency rule was posted on the Department’s website.
Effective July 1, 2019, the legislature provided school districts funding to recruit classroom teachers who are content experts in certain subjects. The criteria to identify content experts must be established by the Department of Education. However, most public schools in Florida are set to begin on August 12th and there is not sufficient time before school starts to establish this criteria by the normal rulemaking process. Unless this criteria is established by emergency rule, school districts will be unable to utilize these funds to recruit teachers by the beginning of this school year. Moreover, unless the criteria is set by emergency rule and recruitment awards provided by school districts, school districts will be unable to distribute recognition awards to their K-12 instructional personnel. The legislature appropriated funds this year to school districts so that the districts can recognize K-12 instructional personnel who are rated as effective or highly effective based upon criteria and policies set by the school districts. However, these funds cannot be distributed by the school districts until the recruitment awards have been made.
Based upon the foregoing, the agency finds an immediate danger to public welfare requires an emergency rule in order to assist with recruiting teachers to Florida to mitigate the teacher shortages in critical areas.
The action of the Board was to unanimously approve Emergency Rule 6AER19-01, Content Expert for Best and Brightest Recruitment Award and the notice. See notice of emergency rule as advertised in the F.A.R. on July 30, 2019, Vol. 45/147. A copy of the audio archive may be obtained at http://www.fldoe.org/board/meetings/.
For more information, you may contact: Chris Emerson at (850)245-9601 or Christian.Emerson@fldoe.org.
