Infighting among the House, the Senate, and the Governor derailed what could have been a successful legislative session in protecting children’s mental health. Many of FLCA’s priority bills that would have taken steps to empower parents, teachers, and students were also stalled on the Senate Side due to this infighting. Some examples of this were HB 1505/SB 1288 and HB 1539/SB 1692. An important bill amendment that would have taught human fetal development education starting in middle grades was also removed last second by Senator Calatayud (R-Miami Dade) on HB 1255.
Each Branch played a role in this fight, where major priorities for leadership were also stalled. It is truly amazing how all three branches snatched defeat from so many recent years of “Florida First”!
We achieved victories such as the stoppage of multiple bills that would have had bad outcomes and rolling back important steps we have taken over the past several years to protect children and drive better learning outcomes. An example of a bill we were able to successfully stop was SB 370 and HB 219 which would have required certain health screenings for students without parental approval.
Another victory we had was the passage of SB 7016 which changes the rules related to petition gathering for constitutional amendments. This bill will have a long-lasting impact on protecting our constitutional amendment process from bad actors that have taken advantage of it over the past few election cycles.
Also, while typically not in our education or child focused lane, we also saw the passage of the gold and silver bills that passed both chambers.
For more information on the legislative session, please watch out for our first legislative scorecard. We will be releasing our scorecard early this summer.
Ryan Kennedy
Director of Policy and Advocacy
