Florida Senate - 2021                                     SB 174
       
       
        
       By Senator Cruz
       
       
       
       
       
       18-00295-21                                            2021174__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to school safety funding; amending s.
    3         1011.62, F.S.; revising certain allocations to school
    4         districts; specifying uses and distribution
    5         requirements for certain safe schools allocation funds
    6         for the 2021-2022 fiscal year; requiring each district
    7         school superintendent to remit specified unused funds
    8         from the 2020-2021 fiscal year to the Department of
    9         Education by a specified date; authorizing the
   10         department, upon request, to redistribute such funds
   11         to certain school districts for a specified purpose;
   12         providing an effective date.
   13          
   14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   15  
   16         Section 1. Subsection (15) of section 1011.62, Florida
   17  Statutes, is amended to read:
   18         1011.62 Funds for operation of schools.—If the annual
   19  allocation from the Florida Education Finance Program to each
   20  district for operation of schools is not determined in the
   21  annual appropriations act or the substantive bill implementing
   22  the annual appropriations act, it shall be determined as
   23  follows:
   24         (15) SAFE SCHOOLS ALLOCATION.—A safe schools allocation is
   25  created to provide funding to assist school districts in their
   26  compliance with ss. 1006.07-1006.12, with priority given to
   27  safe-school officers pursuant to s. 1006.12. From the total
   28  appropriated to the safe schools allocation, each school
   29  district shall receive a minimum safe schools allocation as
   30  specified in an amount provided in the General Appropriations
   31  Act. Of the remaining balance of the safe schools allocation,
   32  one-third shall be allocated to school districts based on the
   33  most recent official Florida Crime Index provided by the
   34  Department of Law Enforcement and two-thirds shall be allocated
   35  based on each school district’s proportionate share of the
   36  state’s total unweighted full-time equivalent student
   37  enrollment. Each school district must report to the Department
   38  of Education by October 15 that all public schools within the
   39  school district have completed the school security risk
   40  assessment using the Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool
   41  developed pursuant to s. 1006.1493. If a district school board
   42  is required by s. 1006.12 to assign a school resource officer or
   43  school safety officer to a charter school, the charter school’s
   44  share of costs for such officer may not exceed the amount of
   45  funds allocated to the charter school under this subsection. Any
   46  funds appropriated to this allocation in the 2021-2022 fiscal
   47  year for the school resource officer program established
   48  pursuant to s. 1006.12 shall be used exclusively for employing
   49  or contracting for additional school resource officers and shall
   50  be distributed among all school districts, regardless of whether
   51  the school district chooses to participate in the Coach Aaron
   52  Feis Guardian Program. The funding shall be distributed to the
   53  school districts based on each school district’s proportionate
   54  share of the state’s total unweighted full-time equivalent
   55  student enrollment.
   56         Section 2. By August 1, 2021, each district school
   57  superintendent shall remit to the Department of Education any
   58  funds from the 2020-2021 fiscal year which were appropriated to
   59  the district for participation in the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian
   60  Program established pursuant to s. 30.15(1)(k), Florida
   61  Statutes, and which remain unused as of July 1, 2021. Upon the
   62  request of the sheriff of the county in which a school district
   63  is located, the department may redistribute such funds to any
   64  school district that has not previously participated in the
   65  Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program, for the purpose of
   66  implementing school safety programs in accordance with s.
   67  1006.07, Florida Statutes.
   68         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.