Controlled open enrollment; public school parental choice.

(1) As used in this section, “controlled open enrollment” means a public education delivery system that allows school districts to make student school assignments using parents’ indicated preferential educational choice as a significant factor.

(2)(a) As part of a school district’s or charter school’s controlled open enrollment process, and in addition to the existing public school choice programs provided in s. 1002.20(6)(a), each district school board or charter school shall allow a parent from any school district in the state whose child is not subject to a current expulsion or suspension to enroll his or her child in and transport his or her child to any public school, including charter schools, that has not reached capacity in the district, subject to the maximum class size pursuant to s. 1003.03 and s. 1, Art. IX of the State Constitution. The school district or charter school shall accept the student, pursuant to that school district’s or charter school’s controlled open enrollment process, and report the student for purposes of the school district’s or charter school’s funding pursuant to the Florida Education Finance Program. A school district or charter school may provide transportation to students described under this section.

(b) Each school district and charter school capacity determinations for its schools, by grade level, must be updated every 12 weeks and be identified on the school district and charter school’s websites. In determining the capacity of each district school, the district school board shall incorporate the specifications, plans, elements, and commitments contained in the school district educational facilities plan and the long-term work programs required under s. 1013.35. Each charter school governing board shall determine capacity based upon its charter school contract. Each virtual charter school and each school district with a contract with an approved virtual instruction program provider shall determine capacity based upon the enrollment requirements established under s. 1002.45(1)(d)4.

(c) Each district school board must provide preferential treatment in its controlled open enrollment process to all of the following:

1. Dependent children of active duty military personnel whose move resulted from military orders.

2. Children who have been relocated due to a foster care placement in a different school zone.

3. Children who move due to a court-ordered change in custody due to separation or divorce, or the serious illness or death of a custodial parent.

4. Students residing in the school district.

(d) As part of its controlled open enrollment process, a charter school may provide preferential treatment in its controlled open enrollment participation process to the enrollment limitations pursuant to s. 1002.33(10), if such special purposes are identified in the charter agreement. Each charter school shall annually post on its website the application process required to participate in controlled open enrollment, consistent with this section and s. 1002.33.

(e) Students residing in the district, including charter school students, may not be displaced by a student from another district seeking enrollment under the controlled open enrollment process.

(f) For purposes of continuity of educational choice, a student who transfers pursuant to this section may remain at the school chosen by the parent until the student completes the highest grade level at the school.

(3) Each district school board shall adopt by rule and post on its website the process required to participate in controlled open enrollment. The process must:

(a) Adhere to federal desegregation requirements.

(b) Allow parents to declare school preferences, including placement of siblings within the same school.

(c) Provide a lottery procedure to determine student assignment and establish an appeals process for hardship cases.

(d) Afford parents of students in multiple session schools preferred access to controlled open enrollment.

(e) Maintain socioeconomic, demographic, and racial balance.

(f) Require school districts to provide information on transportation options, such as:

1. The responsibility of school districts to provide transportation to another public school pursuant to ss. 1002.38 and 1002.394.

2. The availability of funds for transportation under ss. 1002.394, 1002.395, and 1011.68.

3. Any other transportation the school district may provide.

4. Any transportation options available in the community.

(g) Maintain existing academic eligibility criteria for public school choice programs pursuant to s. 1002.20(6)(a).

(h) Identify schools that have not reached capacity, as determined by the school district.

(i) Ensure that each district school board adopts a policy to provide preferential treatment pursuant to paragraph (2)(c).

(j) Require school districts to maintain a wait list of students who are denied access due to capacity and notify parents when space becomes available.

(k) Require schools to accept students throughout the school year as capacity becomes available.

(l) Enable a student who, in middle school, completed a career and technical education course or an industry certification included in the CAPE Industry Certification Funding List to continue a sequential program of career and technical education in the same concentration, if a high school in the district offers the program.

(4) In accordance with the reporting requirements of s. 1011.62, each district school board shall annually report the number of students exercising public school choice, by type, in accordance with rules adopted by the State Board of Education.

(5) For a school or program that is a public school of choice under this section, the calculation for compliance with maximum class size pursuant to s. 1003.03(4) is the average number of students at the school level.

(6) A school district or charter school may not delay eligibility or otherwise prevent a student participating in controlled open enrollment or a choice program from being immediately eligible to participate in interscholastic and intrascholastic extracurricular activities, except as provided under s. 1006.15.

(7) Contingent upon a legislative appropriation, and on a first-come, first-served basis, a public school student enrolled in kindergarten through grade 8 may receive a stipend from an eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization, as defined in s. 1002.395(2), for transportation to a Florida nonvirtual public school that is different from the school to which the student is assigned or to a developmental research school authorized under s. 1002.32.

(a) For an eligible student to receive a stipend, the student’s parent must:

1. Submit an application to an eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization for the specified school year and by the deadline established by the organization.

2. Provide the documentation necessary to verify the student’s eligibility for the specified school year.

3. Be responsible for the payment of all transportation-related expenses in excess of the amount of the stipend.

(b) An eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization shall distribute the stipends to the parents of the eligible students in accordance with the requirements for the organization under this chapter. For the 2024-2025 school year, priority shall be given to households with a student who received a transportation scholarship pursuant to s. 1002.394(4)(a)2. and (12)(a)2., Florida Statutes 2023, or s. 1002.395(6)(d)2.b., Florida Statutes 2023, during the previous school year and is determined eligible for a transportation stipend for the 2024-2025 school year. For the 2025-2026 school year and thereafter, priority shall be given to renewing households with an eligible student. Any remaining stipends shall be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

(c) The Department of Education shall have the same duties imposed by this chapter upon the department regarding the oversight of scholarship programs administered by an eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization.

(d) The amount of the stipend for an eligible student shall be as specified in the General Appropriations Act. A household that has more than one eligible student may only receive one stipend.

(e) Upon notification from the eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization that a student has been determined eligible for a stipend, the department shall release the student’s stipend to the organization.

(f) Moneys received pursuant to this subsection do not constitute taxable income to the qualified student or his or her parent.

(g) No liability shall arise on the part of the state based on the stipend or use of the stipend.