JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Some local parents are standing against a Florida Department of Education policy allowing student information from public school districts to be accessed by certain charter schools designated as \u201cSchools of Hope.\u201d <\/p>\n
Action News Jax has been telling you for months<\/a> about an expansion of the FLDOE\u2019s \u201cSchools of Hope\u201d program passed earlier this year, allowing for charter schools to move into, or \u201cco-locate\u201d within, any public school of its choosing, for free, as long as there are enough empty seats. <\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n This week, one Florida parent group has flagged a \u201cSchools of Hope\u201d policy<\/a> saying that operators of these schools \u201cshall have access to the student information system in the school district in which a School of Hope is located.\u201d The policy doesn\u2019t clarify exactly what student information will be available to Schools of Hope, but some parents worry about the possibility of sensitive student information being leaked to charter schools. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are some serious safety concerns that come along with this,\u201d said Damaris Allen, the executive director of Families for Strong Public Schools, an advocacy organization made up of parents of students in Florida public school districts. <\/p>\n Families for Strong Public Schools held a virtual meeting this week where the Schools of Hope student information policy was brought up numerous times by multiple parents sharing various concerns over what they believe to be a violation of their students\u2019 and family\u2019s privacy. Allen listed concerns over whether things like health records, disciplinary records, and social security information could be accessed by charter schools that move into public schools. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a massive violation of my parental rights,\u201d said Katie Hathaway, a Duval County parent who also works with Families for Strong Public Schools. <\/p>\n Hathaway told Action News Jax she is worried about whether these \u201cSchools of Hope\u201d could send marketing materials to their homes by using their students\u2019 information. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cFamilies didn\u2019t ask for this,\u201d Hathaway said, \u201cI should have a say in who has access to my child\u2019s information.\u201d <\/p>\n Duval County Public Schools has told Action News Jax<\/a> that it has received letters from a Schools of Hope operator who wishes to move into at least 25 district schools by the fall of 2027. The St. Johns County School District told us<\/a> the same operator has sent a letter asking to move into First Coast Technical College. <\/p>\n Anne Watts-Tressler\u2019s kids go to St. Johns County schools. She said she feels like her rights as a parent have been overlooked by the policy change. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re squatting in our schools, and they\u2019re trying to poach our students,\u201d Watts-Tressler said, \u201chow are you going to ask me to sign a permission slip for an animated Disney movie, but you\u2019re just going to give my kids information away to charter co-locators?\u201d <\/p>\n Action News Jax reached out to the Florida Department of Education, asking for a response to these concerns and whether public schools would have an option to opt out of student information being available to Schools of Hope. We are still waiting for a response at this time. <\/p>\n Some state lawmakers have filed a bill<\/a> to repeal the recent Schools of Hope policy change, allowing for charter schools to move into public schools. It will be heard at the state house when lawmakers go back to Tallahassee for the start of the legislative session on January 13th. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Some local parents are standing against a Florida Department of Education policy allowing student information…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":454618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[76557,5229,180328,3387,8716,9102,27165,180329,180330,10911,180331,3070,2871,64882,193,407,14278,56660,87550,6808,3188,70911,723,7007,17353,26251,81634,114215,29672,58394,37342,7310,180332,3068,41050,8143,69697,37264,31941,68395,4699,22651,24339,9099,11645,139735,180333,15689,22631,180334,10576,67,586,132,5230,4280,68,2969,45001],"class_list":{"0":"post-454617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-absence","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-blackboard","11":"tag-board","12":"tag-bright","13":"tag-building","14":"tag-chair","15":"tag-chalk","16":"tag-chalkboard","17":"tag-class","18":"tag-class-room","19":"tag-classroom","20":"tag-college","21":"tag-desk","22":"tag-detail","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-elementary","25":"tag-elementary-school","26":"tag-empty","27":"tag-facility","28":"tag-fl","29":"tag-floor","30":"tag-florida","31":"tag-green","32":"tag-high","33":"tag-high-school","34":"tag-highschool","35":"tag-homework","36":"tag-indoor","37":"tag-inside","38":"tag-interior","39":"tag-jacksonville","40":"tag-learn","41":"tag-learning","42":"tag-lesson","43":"tag-light","44":"tag-loneliness","45":"tag-memories","46":"tag-middle","47":"tag-middle-school","48":"tag-nobody","49":"tag-nostalgia","50":"tag-retro","51":"tag-room","52":"tag-school","53":"tag-school-work","54":"tag-schoolwork","55":"tag-student","56":"tag-teach","57":"tag-think","58":"tag-training","59":"tag-united-states","60":"tag-united-states-of-america","61":"tag-unitedstates","62":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","63":"tag-university","64":"tag-us","65":"tag-usa","66":"tag-yellow"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}