The Florida Board of Educations’ New Rules for the New School Year
Bottom Line: Florida’s Board of Education met Wednesday to approve the new rules for Florida’s 2023-2024 school year. In recent years, on the back of the pandemic and multiple Parental Rights in Education laws, these meetings have been met with greater attendance and participation by parents. They’ve also come under greater public scrutiny. Yesterday’s rules meeting was no exception with new rules which needed to be adopted to come in line with new laws which took effect July 1st – including Florida’s new universal school choice rule. In total there were 27 action items with three coming in direct response to Florida’s Protection of Children law, the Facility Requirements Based on Sex law, and the Education law. Those three drew the lion’s share of the attention during the meeting.
The Protection of Children law dictates that minors aren’t present at adult performances. In the context of Florida’s Department of Education, the rule which was enacted states the following via the Executive Summary:
- The purpose of this new rule is to protect the fundamental rights of parents by ensuring that children are not exposed to inappropriate school-sponsored events and activities. This rule will enhance the safety and welfare of students and protect parental rights.
The rule addressing the Facility Requirements Based on Sex, or “bathrooms” law states the following:
- Requires restrooms and changing facilities at K-12 education institutions must be designated for exclusive use by males or females, or that there is a unisex restroom / changing facility
The rule addressing the Education, “pronouns” law states the following:
- The amendment protects parental rights and enhances student safety by updating the prohibitions regarding instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. Two new disciplinary principles are created to make it a violation for a certified educator to enter the restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex.
Most specifically, as it pertains to pronouns the new rule states:
- Shall not violate (the state statute pertaining to the use of pronouns). That statue reads: It shall be the policy of every public K-12 educational institution that is provided or authorized by the Constitution and laws of Florida that a person's sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person's sex.
The new rules are in place and the new school year starts August 10th in Palm Beach County.