Assistance to transitioning students from military families.

(1) The Legislature finds that school-aged dependents of military personnel, otherwise known as military students, are faced with numerous transitions during their formative years and that moves during the high school years provide special challenges to learning and future achievement. Recognizing the challenges faced by military students and the importance of military families to our community and economy, the Department of Education shall assist the transition of these students by improving the timely transfer of records, developing systems to ease student transition during the first 2 weeks of enrollment, promoting practices which foster access to extracurricular programs, establishing procedures to lessen the adverse impact of moves from the end of the junior year as well as before and during the senior year, encouraging or continuing partnerships between the military base and the school system, providing services for transitioning students when applying to and finding funding for postsecondary study, and providing other assistance as identified by department, school, and military personnel.

(2) The Department of Education shall facilitate the development and implementation of memoranda of agreement between school districts and military installations which address strategies for assisting students who are the children of active duty military personnel in the transition to Florida schools.

(a) The strategies developed by the department must include the development and implementation of a training module relating to facilitating and expediting the transfer of a K-12 student’s education records from an out-of-state school.

(b) The department shall provide the training module required under paragraph (a) to each district school board to provide to each public and charter K-12 school within its district. The district school board shall make the training available to employees who work directly with military students and families.

(3)(a) Dependent children of active duty military personnel who otherwise meet the eligibility criteria for special academic programs offered through public schools:

1. Shall be given first preference for admission to such programs even if the program is being offered through a public school other than the school to which the student would generally be assigned.

2. Must be enrolled in such program if the student’s parent is transferred to the state during the school year.

(b) If such a program is offered through a public school other than the school to which the student would generally be assigned, the parent or guardian of the student must assume responsibility for transporting the student to that school. For purposes of this subsection, special academic programs include magnet schools, advanced studies programs, advanced placement, dual enrollment, Advanced International Certificate of Education, and International Baccalaureate.

(4) A student whose parent is transferred or is pending transfer to a military installation within the state while on active military duty pursuant to an official military order shall be considered a resident of the school district for purposes of enrollment when the order is submitted to the school district and shall be provided preferential treatment in the controlled open enrollment process of the school district pursuant to s. 1002.31. A student whose parent is transferred within the state after the controlled open enrollment window may enroll in any school within the state.