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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
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An act relating to school counselors; amending s. 2
1012.34, F.S.; requiring evaluation criteria for 3
certified school counselors to be based on specified 4
standards; amending s. 1012.55, F.S.; providing that 5
persons seeking employment as school counselors are 6
exempt from specified educator certification 7
requirements; providing that school districts may 8
require such persons to meet certain requirements as a 9
condition of employment; providing an effective date. 10
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Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 12
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Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of section 14
1012.34, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 15
1012.34 Personnel evaluation procedures and criteria.— 16
(3) EVALUATION PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA.—Instructional 17
personnel and school administrator performance evaluations must 18
be based upon the performance of students assigned to their 19
classrooms or schools, as provided in this section. Pursuant to 20
this section, a school district's performance evaluation system 21
is not limited to basing unsatisfactory performance of 22
instructional personnel and school administrators solely upon 23
student performance, but may include other criteria to evaluate 24
instructional personnel and school administrators' performance, 25
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
or any combination of student performance and other criteria. 26
Evaluation procedures and criteria must comply with, but are not 27
limited to, the following: 28
(a) A performance evaluation must be conducted for each 29
employee at least once a year, except that a classroom teacher, 30
as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a), excluding substitute teachers, 31
who is newly hired by the district school board must be observed 32
and evaluated at least twice in the first year of teaching in 33
the school district. The performance evaluation must be based 34
upon sound educational principles and contemporary research in 35
effective educational practices. The evaluation criteria must 36
include: 37
1. Performance of students.—At least one-third of a 38
performance evaluation must be based upon data and indicators of 39
student performance, as determined by each school district. This 40
portion of the evaluation must include growth or achievement 41
data of the teacher's students or, for a school administrator, 42
the students attending the school over the course of at least 3 43
years. If less than 3 years of data are available, the years for 44
which data are available must be used. The proportion of growth 45
or achievement data may be determined by instructional 46
assignment. 47
2. Instructional practice.—For instructional personnel, at 48
least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based upon 49
instructional practice. Evaluation criteria used when annually 50
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
observing classroom teachers, as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a), 51
excluding substitute teachers, must include indicators based 52
upon each of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices adopted 53
by the State Board of Education. 54
a. For instructional personnel who are not classroom 55
teachers or certified school counselors, evaluation criteria 56
must be based upon indicators of the Florida Educator 57
Accomplished Practices and may include specific job expectations 58
related to student support. 59
b. For certified school counselors, evaluation criteria 60
must be based upon indicators of the Florida School Counseling 61
Standards adopted by the State Board of Education. 62
c. This section does not preclude a school administrator 63
from visiting and observing classroom teachers throughout the 64
school year for purposes of providing mentorship, training, 65
instructional feedback, or professional learning. 66
3. Instructional leadership.—For school administrators, at 67
least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based on 68
instructional leadership. Evaluation criteria for instructional 69
leadership must include indicators based upon each of the 70
leadership standards adopted by the State Board of Education 71
under s. 1012.986, including performance measures related to the 72
effectiveness of classroom teachers in the school, the 73
administrator's appropriate use of evaluation criteria and 74
procedures, recruitment and retention of effective and highly 75
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
effective classroom teachers, improvement in the percentage of 76
instructional personnel evaluated at the highly effective or 77
effective level, and other leadership practices that result in 78
student learning growth. The system may include a means to give 79
parents and instructional personnel an opportunity to provide 80
input into the administrator's performance evaluation. 81
4. Other indicators of performance.—For instructional 82
personnel and school administrators, the remainder of a 83
performance evaluation may include, but is not limited to, 84
professional and job responsibilities as recommended by the 85
State Board of Education or identified by the district school 86
board and, for instructional personnel, peer reviews, 87
objectively reliable survey information from students and 88
parents based on teaching practices that are consistently 89
associated with higher student achievement, and other valid and 90
reliable measures of instructional practice. 91
Section 2. Subsection (6) of section 1012.55, Florida 92
Statutes, is renumbered as subsection (7), and a new subsection 93
(6) is added to that section, to read: 94
1012.55 Positions for which certificates required.— 95
(6) A person who is seeking employment as a school 96
counselor is exempt from the educator certification requirements 97
in s. 1012.56(2)(g) and (i). Such exemption does not preclude a 98
school district from requiring a certified school counselor to 99
satisfy the requirements of s. 1012.56(2)(g) and (i) as a 100
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
condition of employment. 101
Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026. 102