Legislative priorities

PCPS 2025 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

PCPS is guided by the vision that all students will receive the knowledge and skills necessary to be productive citizens and is committed to its mission of delivering a high-quality education to all students. In pursuit of this vision and mission, PCPS has set the following legislative priorities for 2025:

STUDENT SUPPORT & ACCOUNTABILITY

• Proficiency Options: Allow additional options to display proficiency in state standards and ensure all students calculated in school grade via alternative assessment are included in district’s overall grade. When calculating a district’s overall grade, eliminate charter schools who choose to receive a school improvement rating.
• Hurricane Impact Relief: Hold school districts impacted by 2024 hurricanes harmless from loss of students due to displacement and consequences from late reporting submissions.
• Flexible Start Times: Modify state-mandated school start times to allow local determination based on input from parents, families and local community stakeholders.
• Acceleration Points: Allow acceleration points to be included in the high school grades calculation formula for students graduating with the Florida Fine Arts Seal.
• Dyscalculia Training: Support and fund the development of high-quality, in-person training to help instructional leaders identify and remediate dyscalculia — a learning disorder that impacts a student’s ability to understand number-based information and math.
• Chronic Absenteeism Solutions: Help school districts combat chronic student absenteeism by initiating intervention processes after 10 absences.

FUNDING PRIORITIES

• Mental Health & Specialized Support: Increase funding for student mental health support, Exceptional Student Education (ESE) programs, and transportation needs.
• VPK Weighted Funding: Provide additional funding for students with disabilities to help cover the additional costs of specialized teacher training and smaller, specialized classrooms to ensure access to quality voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) education.
• High Growth Capital Outlay: Support the High Growth Capital Outlay Fund, which provides infrastructure to help growing student populations.
• FEFP Protection: Continue funding increases of at least 5% and protection from proration for all students funded in the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP).
• State Academic Tournament: Continue funding the annual state academic tournament with $250,000.
• Employee Health Clinic: Support funding of $750,000 for an east PCPS employee health clinic building.

Effective Communication With a Legislator

As a Floridian, one of your greatest responsibilities is to help elect the legislators who represent you and the state's more than 14 million other residents. But your role in the democratic process of government does not end at the polls. By sharing your opinions and ideas with your Representatives and Senators in Tallahassee, you help them decide what to do about the issues and pending legislation that affect us all. They value your suggestions and encourage you to express them.

Your legislators receive a huge amount of phone calls and mail from their constituents. Unfortunately, their full agendas limit their ability to personally respond to them all. How, then, can you be sure your voice is heard? Here are some tips to help you get the most impact out of your communications with your legislators in Tallahassee.

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Either house may originate any type of legislation; however the processes differ slightly between houses.

A legislator sponsors a bill, which is referred to one or more committees related to the bill's subject. The committee studies the bill and decides if it should be amended, pass, or fail. If passed, the bill moves to other committees of reference or to the full house. The full house then votes on the bill.

If it passes in one house, it is sent to the other house for review. A bill goes through the same process in the second house as it did in the first. A bill can go back and forth between houses until a consensus is reached. Of course, the measure could fail at any point in the process.

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POLK COUNTY
LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION

Sen. Ben Albritton
District 27

Capitol Office
330 Senate Building
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
850-487-5027

District Office
150 N. Central Ave.
Bartow, FL 33830-4742
863-534-0073

[email protected]

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Sen. Colleen Burton
District 12

Capitol Office
318 Senate Building
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
850-487-5012

District Office
100 S. Kentucky Ave., Suite 260
Lakeland, FL 33801-5093
863-413-1529

[email protected]

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Rep. Jon Albert
District 48

Capitol Office
1301 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
850-717-5048

District Office
337 Avenue C Southwest
Winter Haven, FL 33880-3262

[email protected]

Rep. Jennifer Kincart Jonsson
District 59

Capitol Office
1302 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
850-717-5059

District Office
210 East Main Street
Bartow, FL 33830-4631

[email protected]

Rep. Jennifer Canady
District 50

Capitol Office
1402 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
850-717-5050

District Office
2033 East Edgewood Drive, Suite 1
Lakeland, FL 33803-3660
863-450-4795

[email protected]

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Rep. Josie Tomkow
District 51

Capitol Office
418 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
850-717-5051

District Office
209 Palmetto Street
Auburndale, FL 33823-3444
863-292-7003

[email protected]

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