Civic and Character Education and Life Skills Education Through Resiliency Education Related Rule Information

• Civic and Character Education and Life Skills Education Through Resiliency Education 

• 6A-1.094124 Required Instruction Planning and Reporting. 

• School districts must annually provide a minimum of five (5) hours of data driven instruction to students in grades 6-12 related to civic and character education and life skills education through resiliency education using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards. 

• The instruction for youth mental and emotional health will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building and must address, at a minimum, the following topics:

1. Strategies specific to demonstrating resiliency through adversity, including the benefits of service to the community through volunteerism.    

2. Strategies to develop healthy characteristics that reinforce positive core values and foster resiliency such as:

                              a. Empathy, perseverance, grit, gratitude, and responsibility

                              b. Critical thinking, problem solving, and responsible decision making.

                              c. Self-awareness and self-management

                              d. Mentorship and citizenship

                              e. Honesty

3.  Recognition of the signs and symptoms of mental health concerns

            4. Promotion of resiliency to empower youth to persevere and reverse the harmful stigma of mental health by reframing the approach from mental health education to resiliency education.

            5.  Strategies to support a peer, friend, or family member through adversity   

            6. Prevention of suicide

            7. Prevention of the abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and drugs

            8. Awareness of local and community resources and the process for accessing assistance  

 (5) Substance Use and Abuse Health Education.

(a) School districts must annually provide instruction to students in grades K-12 related to youth substance use and abuse health education.

b) Using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards, the instruction for substance use and abuse education will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building.

(6) Child Trafficking Prevention Education.

(a) It is the intent of the State Board of Education that every school in Florida be a “Child Trafficking Free Zone.”

(b) School districts must annually provide instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness.

(c) Using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards, the instruction for child trafficking prevention will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building.

(d) Age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs and instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness and must address, at a minimum, the following topics:

1. Recognition of signs of human trafficking.

2. Awareness of resources, including national, state and local resources.

3. Prevention of the abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and drugs.

4. Information on the prevalence, nature, and strategies to reduce the risk of human trafficking, techniques to set healthy boundaries, and how to safely seek assistance; and

5. Information on how social media and mobile device applications are used for human trafficking.

(e) In order to assist with instruction, the department will maintain a human trafficking webpage, located at http://www.fldoe.org/schools/healthy-schools/human-trafficking.stml, with information about the education described in this rule; resources on abuse, including sexual abuse, and human trafficking prevention for professional learning purposes; and materials for parents, guardians, and other caretakers of students.

(7) By December 1 of each year, each school district must submit an implementation plan to the commissioner through the Required Instruction Reporting Portal for subsections (4)-(6) of this rule and post the plan on the school district website. The implementation plan must include:

1. The methods in which instruction will be delivered for each grade level.

2. The professional qualifications of the person delivering instruction; and

3. A description of the materials and resources utilized to deliver instruction.

(8) When a school district’s plan for instruction as set forth in subsection (7), or a school district’s reported instruction as set forth in subsections (1) and (2) of this rule, do not meet the requirements of this rule or Section 1003.42, F.S., school districts must be provided no less than forty-five (45) days in order to submit revisions to the department.

(9) Failure to comply with the requirements of this rule may result in the imposition of sanctions described in Section 1008.32, F.S.

 Human Trafficking Awareness

Human Trafficking, under both federal and Florida law, is defined as the transporting, soliciting, recruiting, harboring, providing or obtaining of another person for transport; for the purposes of forced labor, domestic servitude or sexual exploitation using force, fraud and/or coercion. Human trafficking is modern slavery.

There are approximately 30 million people enslaved throughout the world with 2.5 million located right here in the United States.

• Many of these victims are lured with false promises of financial or emotional security; instead, they are forced or coerced into commercial sex (prostitution), domestic servitude or other types of forced labor.

• Any minor under the age of 18 who is induced to perform a commercial sex act is a victim of human trafficking according to U.S. law, regardless of whether there is force, fraud or coercion. Increasingly, criminal organizations, such as gangs, are luring children from local schools into commercial sexual exploitation or trafficking.

• According to the U.S. Department of Justice, every two minutes a child is trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the United States.

If you suspect a child is a victim, please call the Florida Abuse Hotline at 1-800-96-ABUSE or 911.

If you See Something. Say Something - 1-855-FLA-SAFE (1-855-352-7233)

Local law Enforcement - 911

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline 

National Human Trafficking Hotline - 1-888-373-7888

BeFree Textline Text "BeFree" (233733)

For more information and resources, please visit the FLDOE Human Trafficking webpage: Human Trafficking.

Florida Statute - Human Trafficking