Wednesday the Florida Department of Education unveiled statewide teacher evaluation data, part of a new law that overhauls how teacher performance is measured in Florida. The agency held a press conference by phone to discuss the accomplishment. And then the data quietly disappeared that afternoon. The agency later admitted that Hillsborough County school officials had […]
Unlicensed religious children’s homes have collected more than $600,000 in Florida McKay Scholarship money, according to a year-long investigation by the Tampa Bay Times. The scholarships allow students with disabilities to use the money for tuition at the private school of their choice. But the Times found allegations of abuse at the homes, including requiring […]
Leon County schools led the state in the number of students put into seclusion for behavior or safety reason in 2012, according to Florida Department of Education data. Leon County schools used seclusion almost twice as often as the next district on the list, Pinellas County schools. Orange and Hillsborough county schools were most likely […]
Last week, we posted data we received from the Florida Department of Education on the instances of student seclusion and restraint in Florida schools. Readers chimed in saying they’ve seen different data. And we’ve figured out why. The Florida Department of Education keeps two sets of student seclusion and restraint data. Every incident is supposed […]
Editor’s note: We’ve followed up this post answering some questions about the data raised by readers. Florida keeps two sets of seclusion data. State officials say school districts should record incidents of seclusion in both sets of data, but admit that it does not happen. As a result, Florida Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters […]
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