1003.05  Assistance to transitioning students from military families.--

(1)  The Legislature finds that school-aged dependents of military personnel, otherwise known as military students, are faced with numerous transitions during their formative years and that moves during the high school years provide special challenges to learning and future achievement. Recognizing the challenges faced by military students and the importance of military families to our community and economy, the Department of Education shall assist the transition of these students by improving the timely transfer of records, developing systems to ease student transition during the first 2 weeks of enrollment, promoting practices which foster access to extracurricular programs, establishing procedures to lessen the adverse impact of moves from the end of the junior year as well as before and during the senior year, encouraging or continuing partnerships between the military base and the school system, providing services for transitioning students when applying to and finding funding for postsecondary study, and providing other assistance as identified by department, school, and military personnel.

(2)  The Department of Education shall identify its efforts and strategies for assisting military-connected students in transitioning to the Florida school system, including the identification of acceptable equivalence for curriculum and graduation requirements, and report its findings to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives by October 1, 2003.