| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to the accountability of private |
| 3 | schools participating in state school choice |
| 4 | scholarship programs; amending s. 1002.421, F.S.; |
| 5 | requiring participating private schools to annually |
| 6 | submit to the Department of Education financially |
| 7 | audited statements; providing an effective date. |
| 8 |
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| 9 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 10 |
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| 11 | Section 1. Paragraph (f) of subsection (2) of section |
| 12 | 1002.421, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: |
| 13 | 1002.421 Accountability of private schools participating |
| 14 | in state school choice scholarship programs.- |
| 15 | (2) A private school participating in a scholarship |
| 16 | program must be a Florida private school as defined in s. |
| 17 | 1002.01(2), must be registered in accordance with s. 1002.42, |
| 18 | and must: |
| 19 | (f) Demonstrate fiscal soundness and accountability by: |
| 20 | 1. Being in operation for at least 3 school years or |
| 21 | obtaining a surety bond or letter of credit for the amount equal |
| 22 | to the scholarship funds for any quarter and filing the surety |
| 23 | bond or letter of credit with the department. |
| 24 | 2. Requiring the parent of each scholarship student to |
| 25 | personally restrictively endorse the scholarship warrant to the |
| 26 | school. The school may not act as attorney in fact for the |
| 27 | parent of a scholarship student under the authority of a power |
| 28 | of attorney executed by such parent, or under any other |
| 29 | authority, to endorse scholarship warrants on behalf of such |
| 30 | parent. |
| 31 | 3. Annually submitting to the department the financial |
| 32 | statements of the school, which must have received a financial |
| 33 | audit as defined in s. 11.45. |
| 34 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2012. |