As provided in part II of chapter 1001, district school boards are constitutionally and statutorily charged with the operation and control of public K-12 education within their school district. The district school boards must establish, organize, and operate their public K-12 schools and educational programs, employees, and facilities. Their responsibilities include staff development, public K-12 school student education including education for exceptional students and students in juvenile justice programs, special programs, adult education programs, and career education programs. Additionally, district school boards must:

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   (1) Provide for the proper accounting for all students of school age, for the attendance and control of students at school, and for proper attention to health, safety, and other matters relating to the welfare of students in the following fields:

   (a) Admission, classification, promotion, and graduation of students.—Adopt rules for admitting, classifying, promoting, and graduating students to or from the various schools of the district.

   (b) Enforcement of attendance laws.—Provide for the enforcement of all laws and rules relating to the attendance of students at school. District school boards are authorized to establish policies that allow accumulated unexcused tardies, regardless of when they occur during the school day, and early departures from school to be recorded as unexcused absences. District school boards are also authorized to establish policies that require referral to a school’s child study team for students who have fewer absences than the number required by s. 1003.26(1)(b).

   (c) Control of students.—

   1. Adopt rules for the control, attendance, discipline, in-school suspension, suspension, and expulsion of students and decide all cases recommended for expulsion.

   2. Maintain a code of student conduct as provided in chapter 1006.

   (d) Courses of study and instructional materials.—

   1. Provide adequate instructional materials for all students as follows and in accordance with the requirements of chapter 1006, in the core courses of mathematics, language arts, social studies, science, reading, and literature, except for instruction for which the school advisory council approves the use of a program that does not include a textbook as a major tool of instruction.

   2. Adopt courses of study for use in the schools of the district.

   3. Provide for proper requisitioning, distribution, accounting, storage, care, and use of all instructional materials as may be needed, and ensure that instructional materials used in the district are consistent with the district goals and objectives and the curriculum frameworks approved by the State Board of Education, as well as with the state and school district performance standards required by law and state board rule.

   (e) Transportation.—Make provision for the transportation of students to the public schools or school activities they are required or expected to attend, efficiently and economically, in accordance with the requirements of chapter 1006, which function may be accomplished, in whole or part, by means of an interlocal agreement under s. 163.01.

   (f) Facilities and school plant.—

   1. Approve and adopt a districtwide school facilities program, in accordance with the requirements of chapter 1013.

   2. Approve plans for locating, planning, constructing, sanitating, insuring, maintaining, protecting, and condemning school property as prescribed in chapter 1013.

   3. Approve and adopt a districtwide school building program.

   4. Select and purchase school sites, playgrounds, and recreational areas located at centers at which schools are to be constructed, of adequate size to meet the needs of projected students to be accommodated.

   5. Approve the proposed purchase of any site, playground, or recreational area for which school district funds are to be used.

   6. Expand existing sites.

   7. Rent buildings when necessary, which function may be accomplished, in whole or part, by means of an interlocal agreement under s. 163.01.

   8. Enter into leases or lease-purchase arrangements, in accordance with the requirements and conditions provided in s. 1013.15(2).

   9. Provide for the proper supervision of construction.

   10. Make or contract for additions, alterations, and repairs on buildings and other school properties.

   11. Ensure that all plans and specifications for buildings provide adequately for the safety and well-being of students, as well as for economy of construction.

   12. Provide adequately for the proper maintenance and upkeep of school plants, which function may be accomplished, in whole or part, by means of an interlocal agreement under s. 163.01.

   13. Carry insurance on every school building in all school plants including contents, boilers, and machinery, except buildings of three classrooms or less which are of frame construction and located in a tenth class public protection zone as defined by the Florida Inspection and Rating Bureau, and on all school buses and other property under the control of the district school board or title to which is vested in the district school board, except as exceptions may be authorized under rules of the State Board of Education.

   14. Condemn and prohibit the use for public school purposes of any building under the control of the district school board.

   (g) School operation.—

   1. Provide for the operation of all public schools as free schools for a term of 180 days or the equivalent on an hourly basis as specified by rules of the State Board of Education; determine district school funds necessary in addition to state funds to operate all schools for the minimum term; and arrange for the levying of district school taxes necessary to provide the amount needed from district sources.

   2. Prepare, adopt, and timely submit to the Department of Education, as required by law and by rules of the State Board of Education, the annual school budget, so as to promote the improvement of the district school system.

   (h) Records and reports.—

   1. Keep all necessary records and make all needed and required reports, as required by law or by rules of the State Board of Education.

   2. At regular intervals require reports to be made by principals or teachers in all public schools to the parents of the students enrolled and in attendance at their schools, apprising them of the academic and other progress being made by the student and giving other useful information.

   (i) Parental notification of acceleration mechanisms.—At the beginning of each school year, notify parents of students in or entering high school of the opportunity and benefits of advanced placement, International Baccalaureate, Advanced International Certificate of Education, dual enrollment, and Florida Virtual School courses.

   (2) Require that all laws, all rules of the State Board of Education, and all rules of the district school board are properly enforced.

   (3) Maintain a system of school improvement and education accountability as required by law and State Board of Education rule, including but not limited to the requirements of chapter 1008.

   (4) In order to reduce the anonymity of students in large schools, adopt policies that encourage subdivision of the school into schools-within-a-school, which shall operate within existing resources. A “school-within-a-school” means an operational program that uses flexible scheduling, team planning, and curricular and instructional innovation to organize groups of students with groups of teachers as smaller units, so as to functionally operate as a smaller school. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

   (a) An organizational arrangement assigning both students and teachers to smaller units in which the students take some or all of their coursework with their fellow grouped students and from the teachers assigned to the smaller unit. A unit may be grouped together for 1 year or on a vertical, multiyear basis.

   (b) An organizational arrangement similar to that described in paragraph (a) with additional variations in instruction and curriculum. The smaller unit usually seeks to maintain a program different from that of the larger school, or of other smaller units. It may be vertically organized, but is dependent upon the school principal for its existence, budget, and staff.

   (c) A separate and autonomous smaller unit formally authorized by the district school board or district school superintendent. The smaller unit plans and runs its own program, has its own staff and students, and receives its own separate budget. The smaller unit must negotiate the use of common space with the larger school and defer to the building principal on matters of safety and building operation.

s. 112, ch. 2002-387; s. 10, ch. 2003-391; s. 82, ch. 20