Florida announces proposed rules for schools to earn military-friendly Purple Star designation

Florida school leaders got their first look on Wednesday at proposed rules for earning a state designation that will earmark them as friendly to military families.

The Purple Star campus program has been created in 28 states as of 2021, with the Florida Legislature approving its version in the form of HB 429, with rulemaking delegated to the Florida Department of Education.

Department staff unveiled the state’s proposed application process, a moment school leaders, especially those at Catholic schools, were eagerly awaiting. Many, especially those whose schools are located close to military bases, already have established programs geared toward being military friendly.

District, charter and private schools are all eligible for the designation if they meet the following criteria:

  • Each school must designate a school counselor, teacher, assistant principal, or principal as its point of contact for military families. These staff members would be responsible for serving as a central point of contact for military families and assist with student enrollment, records transfers, accessing services for students with disabilities and accessing school and community-based resources that are available for military families.
  • Each school must have a webpage that includes information about transition planning, academic planning, resources and educational opportunities for military students, navigation for exceptional student education services and parental rights, mental health awareness, and other “matters of importance.”
  • Each school must establish a student-led transition program to help military students adjust to their new school, with a student assigned to serve as a team coordinator, as well as a military peer-support system that links new military students with other military students within two weeks of their arrival. Also required is a process for familiarizing new students with the school that includes introductions to student leaders or ambassadors and information about newcomer social events and guided campus tours.
  • Each school must offer annual professional development for staff on how to identify and respond to the unique needs of military students and their families.
  • Each school must reserve at least 5% of controlled open enrollment seats for military students.
  • Each school must participate in at least three activities to support military families, which include hosting a military recognition event, having the school board issue a resolution publicizing support for military students, partnering with one or more military school liaison officers to provide volunteer opportunities for active duty parents, participating in a service project to connect the school with the military community, maintaining a public display recognizing veterans or military members or families, or offering a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps on campus if the school serves students old enough to participate.

Schools that choose to participate must apply by Aug. 1 of each school year. Designations must be renewed every three years. Forms are expected to be available in March after final approval by the state Board of Education.

Nationally, the program is the result of a grassroots effort aimed at helping the nation’s 1.2 million military students, who face unique challenges because of the many transitions they and their families must make that can disrupt their education and social and emotional well-being.


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BY Lisa Buie

Lisa Buie is senior reporter for NextSteps. The daughter of a public school superintendent, she spent more than a dozen years as a reporter and bureau chief at the Tampa Bay Times before joining Shriners Hospitals for Children — Tampa, where she served for nearly five years as marketing and communications manager. She lives with her husband and their teenage son, who has benefited from education choice.