New Commissioner of Education sends reminders to districts, administrators, teachers, and parents about parental and teachers’ rights
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – On his first day on the job, new Florida Commissioner of Education Anastasios “Stasi” Kamoutsas sent letters to district Superintendents, administrators, teachers, and parents, to remind them of Florida’s parental and teachers’ rights laws.
Click here to read the Commissioner’s letter to District Superintendents and charter school leaders.
The letter to Superintendents and charter school leaders reviewed Florida’s parental rights laws in detail, including a provision “that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex” and the Safety in Private Spaces Act, which led to a warning from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier after reports that biologically male campers were assigned to cabins with female campers at Alachua County Public Schools’s summer camp.
The letter instructed districts to “promptly” distribute a letter to parents.
Click here to read the Commissioner’s letter to parents.
The letter to parents states that they have the right to expect instruction that encourages individual responsibility, does not assign guilt or blame based on a student’s background, is objective and factual, aligns with state academic standards, and builds resiliency.
The letter lists requirements for Florida schools, including a one-to-two-minute moment of silence at the beginning of every day, transparency in instructional materials, and restrooms and changing areas that are designated for exclusive use by boys or girls, with provisions for single-user or unisex options.
The letter provides parents with a link to the Attorney General’s Office of Parental Rights, where a parent may file a complaint related to violations of the Parent’s Bill of Rights.
A third letter concerns the Teachers’ Bill of Rights and reminds Superintendents, charter school leaders, and school administrators that teachers have the right to control the classroom; the bill also requires administrators to provide a reason in writing if their disciplinary decisions deviate from the teacher’s recommendation.
Click here to read the Commissioner’s letter on the Teachers’ Bill of Rights.
Teachers may request a Special Magistrate if their concerns are not resolved at the school or district level; more information can be found here.
About damn time. So refreshing to read this. Teachers now have a voice in the classroom. Boys and girls will go to their assigned bathroom and all others can go outside.
This doesn’t help me do my job at all.
Find another job.
Stan be nice 😊
Common sense prevails!
The Joel Searby rules. Great job Florida.
This letter informs parents how to enforce DeSantis and GOP rights including teaching the benefits of slavery and telling parents how their rights end when in conflict with his.
By the way, the previous SE of Education is now president of the Univ of West Florida, along with 4 other GOP hacks in state U’s.
so awesome! a lil closer to reality and common sense
The teacher’s rights bill needs to adequately define “behavior management intervention” in order to be useful at all. Does giving a child a tour around the school with a lollipop and calling it a ‘break’ count as a behavior intervention? This is an administrators go-to move and they will continue to do so with this bill because it does not adequately define what administrators need to be doing as a behavior intervention. Therefore administrators will continue taking the easy way out and letting teachers take the brunt of behavior management.