[REVISION HISTORY]

Florida public school curriculum and safety changes

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What changed

2026-08-31 19:09 UTC → 2026-09-05 15:50 UTC · added ~~removed~~

As the 2026-2027 academic year begins, Florida public schools are implementing new safety regulations and curriculum mandates. Governor Ron DeSantis noted that the state has invested over $3 billion in school safety. Under HB 757, discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school is a second-degree felony. The School Guardian Program has expanded to include eligible faculty at colleges and universities, and school district safety specialists are now required to train staff on specific protocols. Curriculum changes include mandatory cursive writing instruction for second through fifth graders, with proficiency evaluations required by the end of fifth grade. Additionally, Senate Bill 1264 mandates age-appropriate instruction regarding the history, atrocities, and threats of communism for grades K-12. This coursework covers communist movements in the United States, Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, and the history of communism in Cuba, Latin America, and the Soviet Union. For the 2026-27 school year, the “History of Communism” standards for grades 6 through 12 are being integrated into existing social studies, civics, government, and economics courses. One stated objective of the mandate is to prepare students to withstand potential indoctrination at the collegiate level. Erika Donalds, founder of the Education Freedom Foundation, has advocated for the state to lead the nation in teaching the “dangers of communism,” citing Florida’s large population of residents who fled regimes in countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Following approval by the state Board of Education in November 2025, Florida Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas stated the curriculum is intended to help students understand the “catastrophic failures and human suffering caused by communist regimes” during a perceived resurgence of such ideologies. Observers have noted that a decline in intergenerational storytelling and the end of the military draft may have contributed to a loss of historical perspective regarding the Cold War.

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