And Now School Concurrency

In recent years, Florida has had crowded schools because of a growing population. A new law in 2005 made it so that all communities must have a plan in place for new neighborhoods to make sure there are enough schools for the kids living there. This new plan controls when new neighborhoods can be built to make sure there are enough public facilities, like schools, for everyone. Only one area in Florida has a system that meets all the requirements for this law. Cities and counties plan for growth and handle zoning and development orders. Each of the 67 school districts builds and runs public schools and must have a five-year plan for school facilities. This creates a challenge in coordinating between different government organizations.

In 1993, the government decided to study school concurrency before making it a statewide rule. In 1996, Broward County tried to set up a countywide school concurrency system, but it ended up in a legal battle. In 1997, the government created a commission to review school concurrency policy, which recommended keeping it optional. The government agreed and made the recommended framework mandatory in 2005 with some changes. In 2005, a new law required all counties and their cities to create a system to manage school growth. The only exception is for areas where schools are not full and there are not many new students expected. This system has to be for the whole county to make sure all students have equal access to good schools. To do this, all local governments in the county have to agree on how to plan for schools. Some small cities are exempt because they don’t have a big impact on school demand. In simple terms, each city and county must have a plan for public schools in their area. This plan needs to meet certain requirements and criteria set by the state. One important part of this plan is the level of service (LOS) standard, which determines how well a school is expected to operate based on the number of students it serves. The plan also must be based on data and analysis. Local governments and school boards have some flexibility in setting these standards, but they still need to be good and based on information. In 1998, there was a big debate about how school areas would be decided for new developments. The government preferred countywide areas, but also allowed smaller service areas. In 2005, they changed the rules so that after five years, areas had to be smaller.

One important part of this plan is making sure there is enough money to build the needed public facilities. The government also has to make sure these facilities will be ready when they’re needed. In 1998, they decided that if a new housing project had enough space for a school within three years of getting permission to build, it could go ahead. In 2005, they changed the rules so that the three years would be measured from a different date, and they could give developers even more time. The 2005 law changed the rules for how developers have to pay for building new schools in areas where there isn’t enough space. It also got rid of a requirement for certain areas to be included in a big plan. The law now says that local governments have to follow specific rules for making sure there are enough schools for new buildings. And if they want to stop a building project because of not enough school space, they can only do it if they have a good plan in place that meets certain requirements. Since 1998, only Palm Beach County and 26 participating towns have implemented a program that coordinates school planning with the district school board. This was a big achievement because many government groups had to agree on the details. Making the agreement itself was really hard, and there were a lot of issues brought up by outside parties.

Some important things for communities to consider when implementing the new law about school planning are:
– Making sure that the plans for schools are based on good data and analysis of how many people there will be and how many students there will be, and that they work with the school board.
– Including the important terms of the agreement with the county, school board, and towns in the local plan.
– Having the same boundaries and standards for school planning when the state checks if the plan follows the law as when it’s used for developers.
– Making sure the plan for school building is possible financially. This was a big deal in Palm Beach and Broward, and developers are worried that school planning will just make them pay for schools instead of the community paying for them with taxes.
– Making sure the plan for school building follows the class-size rules in the Florida Constitution, even though it’s not a specific rule from the state government. The new school concurrency law in Florida will need a lot of discussions and studies, especially in big cities. It’s important to involve the public early on to avoid arguments and lawsuits. Let’s get started now. New law requires local governments and school boards to comply or face fines. It may impact new residential projects and school construction. The law aims to ensure that school facilities keep up with growth. David L. Powell is a lawyer at a law firm in Tallahassee. He helped create the rules for building new schools in Florida. Michele Gazica is also a lawyer at the same firm. They wrote this article for the Environmental and Land Use Law Section. This section is led by Robert D. Fingar and Martha M. Collins.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/and-now-school-concurrency/