TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida schools and universities that took precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 would be protected from pandemic-related lawsuits, including parents and students who sue seeking a refund of tuition, under a bill approved by a Senate committee on Tuesday.
Several universities have been sued after moving to online classes and shutting down campus activities. Students argue they weren't given the full campus experience. The measure unanimously approved by the Senate Education Committee would prevent those lawsuits and would be retroactive to when the public health emergency was declared in March 2020.
Recommended Videos
Sandra Harris, a lobbyist for Nova Southeastern University, said colleges would have been sued no matter how they responded to the pandemic.
“The irony is, if we had required students to go to campus to finish their semester, we would have been faced with lawsuits. If we had just suspended educating our students, we would have been faced with lawsuits,” Harris said. “Students are claiming that they were not allowed to get the rich learning experience as provided on a campus.”
Some expressed concerns the language is too broad and would prevent students from recovering money spent on meal plans and housing.
“These are products that were never delivered that were paid for,” said Jacksonville trial attorney Curry Pajcic.
Republican Sen. Joe Gruters, the committee chairman, said his intent is to protect tuition.
“Unfortunately there’s people that wanted the virtual instruction and they don’t want to pay. So this will hopefully clear things up,” Gruters said.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has expressed frustration with universities not returning to full in-person learning. When Gruters was asked if he felt the liability protections may disincentivize universities from getting back in the classroom, he said: “If I was a university administrator, I would certainly be listening to whatever the governor had to say.”
The bill also would allow parents of students in kindergarten through fifth grade to ask schools to have their children repeat the grade for academic reasons.
“Because parents were the ones over the past year who were really administering a lot of the child’s education,” said Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones.
It also wouldn't allow schools to base third-grade retention decisions on statewide standardized tests, but rather encourage administrators and teachers and parents to base the decisions on classroom performance. Parents would have the final say over whether a student should repeat a grade.
Also, the bill would suspend penalties and sanctions against schools whose performances dropped in 2020-2021 under Florida's school grading system.
“We are going to do assessments, we are doing grades, there’s just no consequences,” Gruters said.
The bill was approved the day after DeSantis signed a bill to protect businesses and health care providers from coronavirus lawsuits.