Florida 2026 Session Status: Introduced 1 R cosponsors

SB 1036 — School Counselors

Last action — Laid on Table, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/CS/HB 753 (Ch. 2026-107)

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  1. 1
    Introduced
  2. 2
    In Committee
  3. 3
    Passed Senate
  4. 4
    Passed House
  5. 5
    To Executive
  6. 6
    Enacted

This bill has been introduced in the Senate. Introduced December 30, 2025. It must pass committee before a floor vote.

Next likely step: a committee referral and hearing.

Prognosis

Stalled 28% · moderate confidence

Where this bill stands today.

Odds of enactment

Low

How often bills like it became law.

  • Introduced

    Current position in the legislative process.

  • 1 sponsor

    1 primary, 0 co-sponsors signed on.

  • Single-party support

    Sponsorship is currently within one party (1 R).

  • Cleared a recorded vote

    Passed 5 recorded votes so far.

Prognosis reads this bill's own signals — stage, sponsorship breadth, committee status, recorded votes and cross-state momentum. Odds come from a model trained on which bills have become law.

Summary

School Counselors; Requiring that evaluation criteria for certified school counselors be based on specified standards; providing that persons seeking employment as school counselors are exempt from specified educator certification requirements, etc.

Bill Text

What changed in the latest version

22 added · 114 removed

22 line(s) added, 114 removed.

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Florida Senate - 2026 CS for CS for SB 1036 By the Committees on Rules;
Florida Senate - 2026 CS for SB 1036 By the Committee on Education Pre-K - 12;
and Education Pre-K - 12;
and Senator Calatayud 581-02037-26 20261036c1 A bill to be entitled An act relating to school counselors;
and Senator Calatayud 595-02934-26 20261036c2 A bill to be entitled An act relating to school counselors;
1012.34, F.S.;
requiring that evaluation criteria for certified school counselors be based on specified standards;
amending s.
providing that persons seeking employment as school counselors are exempt from specified educator certification requirements;
providing that school counselors are exempt from specified certification requirements, unless required for employment by a school district;
authorizing school districts to require such persons to meet certain requirements as a condition of employment;
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
8 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
Paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of section 1012.34, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
1012.34 Personnel evaluation procedures and criteria.— (3) EVALUATION PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA.—Instructional personnel and school administrator performance evaluations must be based upon the performance of students assigned to their classrooms or schools, as provided in this section.
Pursuant to this section, a school district’s performance evaluation system is not limited to basing unsatisfactory performance of instructional personnel and school administrators solely upon student performance, but may include other criteria to evaluate instructional personnel and school administrators’ performance, or any combination of student performance and other criteria.
Evaluation procedures and criteria must comply with, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) A performance evaluation must be conducted for each Page 1 of 4 CODING:
Words stricken are deletions;
words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 2026 CS for CS for SB 1036 595-02934-26 20261036c2 employee at least once a year, except that a classroom teacher, as defined in s.
1012.01(2)(a), excluding substitute teachers, who is newly hired by the district school board must be observed and evaluated at least twice in the first year of teaching in the school district.
The performance evaluation must be based upon sound educational principles and contemporary research in effective educational practices.
The evaluation criteria must include:
1.
Performance of students.—At least one-third of a performance evaluation must be based upon data and indicators of student performance, as determined by each school district.
This portion of the evaluation must include growth or achievement data of the teacher’s students or, for a school administrator, the students attending the school over the course of at least 3 years.
If less than 3 years of data are available, the years for which data are available must be used.
The proportion of growth or achievement data may be determined by instructional assignment.
2.
Instructional practice.—For instructional personnel, at least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based upon instructional practice.
Evaluation criteria used when annually observing classroom teachers, as defined in s.
1012.01(2)(a), excluding substitute teachers, must include indicators based upon each of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices adopted by the State Board of Education.
a.
For instructional personnel who are not classroom teachers or certified school counselors, evaluation criteria must be based upon indicators of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices and may include specific job expectations Page 2 of 4 CODING:
Words stricken are deletions;
words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 2026 CS for CS for SB 1036 595-02934-26 20261036c2 related to student support.
b.
For certified school counselors, evaluation criteria must be based upon indicators of the Florida School Counseling Standards adopted by the State Board of Education.
c.
This section does not preclude a school administrator from visiting and observing classroom teachers throughout the school year for purposes of providing mentorship, training, instructional feedback, or professional learning.
3.
Instructional leadership.—For school administrators, at least one-third of the performance evaluation must be based on instructional leadership.
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Evaluation criteria for instructional leadership must include indicators based upon each of the leadership standards adopted by the State Board of Education under s.
1012.986, including performance measures related to the effectiveness of classroom teachers in the school, the administrator’s appropriate use of evaluation criteria and procedures, recruitment and retention of effective and highly effective classroom teachers, improvement in the percentage of instructional personnel evaluated at the highly effective or effective level, and other leadership practices that result in student learning growth.
The system may include a means to give parents and instructional personnel an opportunity to provide input into the administrator’s performance evaluation.
4.
Other indicators of performance.—For instructional personnel and school administrators, the remainder of a performance evaluation may include, but is not limited to, professional and job responsibilities as recommended by the State Board of Education or identified by the district school board and, for instructional personnel, peer reviews, Page 3 of 4 CODING:
Words stricken are deletions;
words underlined are additions.
Florida Senate - 2026 CS for CS for SB 1036 595-02934-26 20261036c2 objectively reliable survey information from students and parents based on teaching practices that are consistently associated with higher student achievement, and other valid and reliable measures of instructional practice.
Section 2.
1012.55 Positions for which certificates required.— (6) A person who is seeking employment as a school counselor is exempt from the educator certification requirements in s.
1012.55 Positions for which certificates required.— (6) A person employed as a school counselor is exempt from the educator certification requirements in s.
1012.56(2)(g) and (i).
1012.56(2)(g) and (h), relating to the mastery of general and subject area knowledge.
Such exemption does not preclude a school district from requiring a certified school counselor to satisfy the requirements of s.
Such exemption does not preclude a school district from requiring the person to demonstrate mastery of general and subject area knowledge as a condition of employment.
1012.56(2)(g) and (i) as a condition of employment.
Section 2.
Section 3.
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How this bill changes current law

2 changes Share ↗

AI-generated reading aid from the bill's amendatory text — verify against the official bill.

The bill amends evaluation criteria for school counselors and exempts them from certain educator certification requirements.

  • Section 1012.34

    b. For instructional personnel who are not classroom teachers or certified school counselors, evaluation criteria must be based upon indicators of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices and may include specific job expectations related to student support. → b. For certified school counselors, evaluation criteria must be based upon indicators of the Florida School Counseling Standards adopted by the State Board of Education.

    This change specifies that evaluation criteria for certified school counselors will be based on the Florida School Counseling Standards instead of general educator practices.

  • Section 1012.55

    A person who is seeking employment as a school counselor is exempt from the educator certification requirements in s. 1012.56(2)(g) and (i). Such exemption does not preclude a school district from requiring a certified school counselor to satisfy the requirements of s. 1012.56(2)(g) and (i) as a condition of employment.

    This addition provides an exemption from certain certification requirements for individuals seeking to become school counselors, while allowing districts to impose additional requirements.

Action History

  1. Laid on Table, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/CS/HB 753 (Ch. 2026-107) -SJ 672

  2. Substituted CS/CS/HB 753 -SJ 672

  3. Read 2nd time -SJ 672

  4. Placed on Special Order Calendar, 03/06/26

  5. CS/CS by Rules read 1st time

  6. Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading

  7. Pending reference review -under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)

  8. CS/CS by- Rules; YEAS 24 NAYS 0

  9. On Committee agenda-- Rules, 02/17/26, 12:00 pm, 412 Knott Building

  10. Now in Rules

  11. Favorable by Appropriations Committee on Pre-K - 12 Education; YEAS 10 NAYS 0

  12. On Committee agenda-- Appropriations Committee on Pre-K - 12 Education, 02/04/26, 1:00 pm, 37 Senate Building

  13. CS by Education Pre-K - 12 read 1st time

  14. Now in Appropriations Committee on Pre-K - 12 Education

  15. Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)

  16. CS by Education Pre-K - 12; YEAS 8 NAYS 0

  17. On Committee agenda-- Education Pre-K - 12, 01/20/26, 1:00 pm, 412 Knott Building

  18. Introduced

  19. Referred to Education Pre-K - 12; Appropriations Committee on Pre-K - 12 Education; Rules

  20. Filed

Sponsors

Sponsorship breakdown

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1 sponsors · 0 co-sponsors · 163 not signed on

Sponsors (1)

Co-sponsors (0)

None.

Not signed on (163)

163 members have not signed on to this bill.

Show all 163 →

"Not signed on" means a member has not sponsored or co-sponsored this bill — it does not imply opposition. Members flagged Voted No have a recorded No vote on this bill.

Whip count is in markup. Polling the chamber and every recorded vote this session. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Calling the roll · Tallying · Engrossing

Votes

Favorable with Committee Substitute

Passed 24 Yea · 0 Nay
Party YeaNayPresentNot Voting
Republican 18000
Democrat 5000
No Party Affiliation 1000
Total 24000
% of votes cast 100%0%0%0%
How each member voted (24)
Member Party Vote
Berman, Lori Democrat Yea
Davis, Tracie Democrat Yea
Jones, Shevrin D. "Shev" Democrat Yea
Osgood, Rosalind Democrat Yea
Rouson, Darryl Ervin Democrat Yea
Pizzo, Jason W. B. No Party Affiliation Yea
Boyd, Jim Republican Yea
Bradley, Jennifer Republican Yea
Brodeur, Jason Republican Yea
Burgess, Danny Republican Yea
Burton, Colleen Republican Yea
DiCeglie, Nick Republican Yea
Gaetz, Don Republican Yea
Garcia, Ileana Republican Yea
Grall, Erin Republican Yea
Harrell, Gayle Republican Yea
Hooper, Ed Republican Yea
Martin, Jonathan Republican Yea
Passidomo, Kathleen Republican Yea
Rodriguez, Ana Maria Republican Yea
Simon, Corey Republican Yea
Trumbull, Jay Republican Yea
Vacant Republican Yea
Wright, Tom A. Republican Yea

Official roll call →

Subjects

education
Cross-referencing the record. Reading this bill against every other bill in the corpus by meaning, not keywords. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Matching · Ranking · Engrossing

Frequently asked questions

What does SB 1036 do?
School Counselors; Requiring that evaluation criteria for certified school counselors be based on specified standards; providing that persons seeking employment as school counselors are exempt from specified educator certification requirements, etc.
Who sponsors SB 1036?
SB 1036 is sponsored by Calatayud, Alexis (Republican).
What is the current status of SB 1036?
This bill has been introduced in the Senate. Introduced December 30, 2025. It must pass committee before a floor vote.
Where can I track SB 1036?
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Last checked for changes 3 months ago · updated continuously

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