Proposed Rule Change in Florida on State Uniform Transfer of Students in the Middle Grades

Just a follow-up to the four posts I wrote in August about how Florida’s end-of-course assessments were impacting private schools.  There is a proposed rule change to the Florida Administrative Code which will reflect changes to the Florida Statutes.

You can see it below:

6A-1.09942 State Uniform Transfer of Students in the Middle Grades.

The purpose of this rule is to establish uniform procedures relating to the acceptance of transfer work and courses for students entering Florida’s public schools composed of middle grades 6, 7, and 8 from out of state or out of country. The procedures shall be as follows:

(1) Grades earned and offered for acceptance shall be based on official transcripts and shall be accepted at face value subject to validation if required by the receiving school’s accreditation. If validation of the official transcript is deemed necessary, or if the student does not possess an official transcript or is a home education student, successful completion of courses shall be validated through performance during the first grading period as outlined in subsection (2) of this rule.

(2) Validation of courses shall be based on performance in classes at the receiving school. A student transferring into a school shall be placed at the appropriate sequential course level and should be passing each required course at the end of the first grading period. Students who do not meet this requirement shall have courses validated using the Alternative Validation Procedure, as outlined in subsection (3) of this rule.

(3) Alternative Validation Procedure. If validation based on performance as described above is not satisfactory, then any one of the following alternatives identified in the district student progression plan shall be used for validation purposes as determined by the teacher, principal, and parent:

(a) Portfolio evaluation by the superintendent or designee;

(b) Demonstrated performance in courses taken at other public or private accredited schools;

(c) Demonstrated proficiencies on nationally-normed standardized subject area assessments;

(d) Demonstrated proficiencies on the FCAT; or

(e) Written review of the criteria utilized for a given subject provided by the former school.

Students must be provided at least ninety (90) days from date of transfer to prepare for assessments outlined in paragraphs (3)(c) and (d) of this rule if required.

Specific Authority 1003.4156(3), 1003.25(3) FS. Law Implemented 1003.25(3) FS. History–New 10-20-08.

Online comments are open.