Florida Department of Education

A potential rule would aim to make schools licensed by the state’s Commission for Independent Education eligible to receive the money.

The Senate and House unanimously passed the measure to eliminate the cap on the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities as part of last week's special session.

At the "strong urging" of the state Department of Education, the Duval school district says it will no longer participate in the federal questionnaire for teens.

The governor says initiatives will include reading coaches, STEM and math acceleration programs, parent mentorship training and mental health resources.

Instead of shifting away money from 12 districts that required masks, legislation would set up a $200 million reserve fund from which the 55 counties that followed state directives would be rewarded.

The U.S. Department of Education dropped a cease-and-desist order after the state returned money it had been withholding from school districts that had since reversed their mask mandates.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a notice that arguments will be held the week of Feb. 7 in Miami.

The state says recent action by the two counties in the center of the conflict should end the legal battle with the U.S. Department of Education. If it doesn’t, the state will argue its case in court.

The U.S. Department of Education has asked an administrative judge to block the state from slashing federal aid money sent to the Broward and Alachua school districts over their mask mandates.

The state Department of Education has withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding from the districts because of their masking policies, defying warnings from the Biden administration.