FSCA’S BIG MOVE: STEP 2
What an
exciting time and week for the Florida School Counselors and the Florida School
Counselor Association!
Our
companion bills in the Florida Senate and House have been filed (SB1654 and
HB1317 respectively). Our legislative champions are Sen. Nancy Detert
(R-Venice) and Rep. Janet Adkins (R-Fernandina Beach). Our advocacy consultant
has been meeting with other legislative members as well and many are very
interested in the issues surrounding school counselors.
Sen.
Detert has named this bill the “Student Failure Prevention Act” and is very
excited about the positive changes it will have on the profession, and more
importantly, on the students that the certified school counselors work with
every day. Our excellent bill sponsor in the House is Rep. Janet Adkins
(R-Fernandina Beach) who is very involved in K-12 education and has demonstrates
that she “gets” us.
As of
today, HB 1317 has been referred to three committees for legislative hearings
and we are working on having it placed on the agenda for its first committee
stop in the K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Eric
Fresen (R-Miami). For clarification, it is a good sign that HB 1317 has only
three committees of reference.
FSCA is
still waiting for committee references in the Senate and expect that will happen
any time now.
To recap,
the drafts reflect maximum ratios of certified school counselors per number of
students overall and at each level and states that no school should have less
than one full-time certified school counselor. It also outlines specific job
responsibilities and more importantly, the responsibilities that should not be
assigned to school counselors (like testing management/monitoring, bus duty,
lunchroom monitoring, and administrative substitution.) Finally, the bill
reflects the name change “certified school counselors” as the correct title of
your profession.
Now is
the time to get involved in making our bill a reality. In this case, you can
stand up for students by standing up for the profession and making sure that All
students get the benefits of professional school counseling. You
can:
Write a
note, email or call our bill sponsors and thank them for their willingness to
take on these issues and work with us to improve the lives of our children.
Senator Nancy
Detert detert.nancy.web@flsenate.gov
District
Office: 417
Commercial Court Suite
D Venice,
FL 34292 (941)
480-3547 Senate
VOIP: 42300 FAX
(941) 480-3549 Toll
Free: 1-866-247-4076 Tallahassee
Office: 318
Senate Office Building 404
South Monroe Street Tallahassee,
FL 32399-1100 (850)
487-5081 Senate
VOIP: 5081
Legislative Assistants: Charlie
Anderson, Rita Faulkner and GeeDee Kerr
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Capitol Office 313 House Office Building
402 South Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300 Phone: (850)
488-6920
District Office 905 South 8th Street Fernandina Beach, FL 32034-3706 Phone: (904) 491-3664 OR 945 N. Temple Avenue Starke, FL 32091-2110 Phone: (904) 966-6215
Legislative Assistant: Larry Williams
District Secretary: Marianne Marshall Alexis
Zink
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Reach out
to your own legislators and those in surrounding areas who represent your
school district and inform them and their staff of your efforts, and ask for
their support of these bills. It would be great if they would also consider
signing on as a co-sponsor of these bills. To find your legislators go to the
House
ore Senate websites.
Want
to do and know more…
Watch
this space for other things you can do, developing talking points, actions in
districts, gathering data and evidence, participating in our statewide video
support, and more.
Remember,
membership in FSCA helps, action to connect with policy makers and legislators
also helps. We will continue to keep you updated as we progress through the
next several weeks.
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