FASA Policy and Legislative Updates - July 2026

The state’s 2026-2027 fiscal year began this week, and as in past years, there are some changes that have taken place. Let’s start with the big one – the state budget. Governor DeSantis signed the $117.6 billion budget on Tuesday, but not before issuing nearly $810 million in line-item vetoes. This budget will reduce state spending for the fourth straight year while securing almost $18 billion in financial reserves.

Looking closer at the budget, here are some education winners and losers from this spending plan.  $16 billion has been allocated for the K-12 public school system, which is the highest amount ever. This covers the costs associated with the projected enrollment of 3.2 million students, including the 500,000 students projected to participate in the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program. An increase of $201 million, for a total of $1.56 billion, to be used for pay increases for full-time classroom teachers and certified prekindergarten teachers funded in the FEFP, with at least 10 years of full-time teaching experience in a Florida public school. The amount of such an increase may not exceed $3,000. Also, student transportation gets an increase of $5 million, bringing the total to $570.8 million. Early childhood education receives $1.65 billion in funding, and $431 million of that goes to the VPK program.  School safety and mental health initiatives were also a priority this year. About $550 million has been approved for these programs. And $15 million has been set aside for K-12 civics engagement.

As always, with the good news, there is some not-so-good news. Among the vetoes, there were many districts that saw STEM funding get cut out of the budget, as well as math success innovation pilots, a CPR in schools implementation, and the Florida Rural Digital Literacy program. The veto list consists of 18 pages; you can read about all of the items that didn’t make it into the budget HERE.

In other notable news, July 1 is also the day when many new laws take effect. Here are some of the notable new laws:

• HB 178 — School Athletics
  • House Bill 178 requires that head coaches of sports teams be allowed to use personal funds to support the welfare of students under the FHSAA. Under this law, coaches may provide help in the form of food, transportation and recovery services. That said, coaches are limited to using $15,000 in personal funds per athletic team per year.

• HB 453 — High School Diplomas
  • House Bill 453 allows students with disabilities to substitute one school year of participation in the Special Olympics for the P.E. requirement for a standard high school diploma.  Furthermore, the law specifies that two years of marching band satisfy both the one-credit requirement in P.E. and the one-credit requirement in performing arts.
• HB 538 — Extracurricular Activities
  • House Bill 538 revises student eligibility and participation requirements for extracurricular activities, including athletics. It makes a variety of changes, including: Allowing districts to use funds raised through high school booster clubs for activities to pay the coaches of those activities. Authorizing districts to classify athletic coaches and activity sponsors of extracurricular activities as administrative personnel and thus negotiate salary compensation. Permitting students who wish to participate in a sport that their current school doesn’t offer to participate in that sport through another school in the same district
• HB 561 — Educator Preparation
  • House Bill 561 makes it easier for teachers whose licenses expired to get back into the classroom, but without having to retake subject area exams that have already been passed. The bill also gives these educators a temporary license so that they can work and earn the classes or training hours they need, and it sets up free training to help them renew or fix their license.
• HB 1201 — Student Health
  • House Bill 1201 updates statutory provisions regarding the care of students with epilepsy or seizure disorders and expands the definition of schools to include charter schools.
• HB 1279 — Teacher Funding
  • House Bill 1279 lets school districts provide immediate pay incentives to high-performing teachers who choose to teach in lower-performing schools, even without collective bargaining. The law also allows bonuses for districts and teachers who offer Florida Advanced Courses (FACTs), in line with bonuses offered for other advanced courses like AP, AICE and IB.

A full list of all new laws that have taken effect can be found HERE

Now that the legislative sessions are over and the budget is in effect, FASA is now turning its attention to the upcoming elections. A full listing of all candidates will be posted soon on FASA’s website, and it will be updated as results happen. You can find the tracker on FASA’s advocacy page.

It is not too late to donate to the FASA PAC. FASA will use PAC funds to support candidates who align with our mission statement to support and empower administrators in providing high-quality education to all students in Florida. You can donate to the PAC HERE.

Please continue to read FASA’s Daily Announcements and the Friday Facts and follow our social media updates for legislative and election updates.

Thank you for all you do!