Room to Learn Act
Discussion draft · Not a filed billVersion 0.1 · October 2026 · For comment
Legislative proposal · Florida 2027 session

Room to Learn Act (working title)

A church can seat hundreds on Sunday. A few dozen homeschool students on Tuesday can trigger a sprinkler retrofit. This draft closes the facility gaps that keep Florida families waiting for seats.

3 provisions · 4 bill sectionsNo appropriationEffective July 1, 2027
Research Snapshot · Prepared by Dustin J. Krein, Ed.D. · Developed with Claude · Sources and open questions at the bottom
The 30-second version
  1. Let homeschool co-ops meet in churches and community buildings under the building's existing fire classification, with clear safety conditions.
  2. Treat open-air pavilions and barns used for teaching as accessory structures, not school buildings.
  3. Open empty public school space to private schools and co-ops once Schools of Hope operators have had first pick.
Why now

Leaders named the problem in public

At the James Madison Institute's 2026 webinar marking 25 years of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Danny Burgess described the same barrier from two sides.

"Have 700 people in the chapel on Sunday"
Gov. Jeb Bush

Bush contrasted a church's Sunday crowd with the sprinkler system it would need to host a school, a cost he said can make the school impossible to run. He also named zoning costs such as traffic studies and retrofits.

"It really exposed some loopholes"
Sen. Danny Burgess (R-Zephyrhills)

Burgess said it happened in his district. A hybrid homeschool program his own children attended, meeting part of the week at a church, was told by the fire marshal it could not operate without sprinklers. The program and the county found a workaround.

~41K

students declined scholarships last year because no seat was available.Research by Ron Matus, Step Up For Students, as cited at the JMI webinar · Verify before filing

Current law

What 2026 fixed, and what it left open

Ch. 2026-33 (SB 182) made real progress for small private schools. It does not reach the cases this draft targets.

SituationLaw todayStatus
Private school, 150 or fewer students, in a church or other assembly buildingMay operate there if it meets existing educational-occupancy standards. An NFPA 101A evaluation counts as evidence of compliance. s. 1002.42(19)(e), F.S.Largely fixed
Homeschool co-op or hybrid program that is not a registered private schoolNot addressed. Under NFPA 101, six or more students for 4+ hours a day or 12+ hours a week makes a space an educational occupancy. Two full days a week crosses that line.Open gap
Outdoor school using a pavilion, screened shelter, or barnNo category for open-air structures. A local official can treat a pavilion as an educational building. The sprinkler waiver for rooms with direct exterior exits was in SB 1264, which died in committee.Open gap
Empty or underused public school spaceSchools of Hope operators may claim listed space at up to $600 per student. Private schools and co-ops have no path. s. 1002.333(7), F.S.Open gap
The proposal

Three provisions

A

Co-op safe harbor

A home education co-op meeting in a church, library, or community center is classified as that building's existing occupancy, not a school, when it stays within the room's approved load and meets five safety conditions. No sprinkler demand triggered by the co-op alone. No new registration for families.

Section 1 · creates s. 1002.___
B

Open-air structures

Pavilions, screened shelters, and existing barns used for teaching are accessory structures. Any classroom with its own door straight outside at ground level needs no sprinkler system, reviving the SB 1264 language.

Section 2 · amends s. 1002.42(19)
C

Shared public space

Space on the state's underused-facilities list that no hope operator claims becomes available to private schools and co-ops at cost, on a state lease template. Those buildings already meet educational code.

Section 3 · creates s. 1013.___
Draft statutory text

The bill

Underlined words are additions to law.[Bracketed] values are open policy choices.Section numbers marked ___ are assigned by bill drafting.
  1. A bill to be entitled
  2. An act relating to educational facilities; creating s. 1002.___, F.S.;
  3. defining the term "home education cooperative"; providing that a
  4. facility used by a home education cooperative retains its existing
  5. occupancy classification under certain conditions; prohibiting a local
  6. fire official from requiring an automatic sprinkler system solely because
  7. of such use; amending s. 1002.42, F.S.; defining the term "outdoor
  8. learning facility"; classifying such facilities as accessory structures;
  9. exempting certain fire areas from automatic sprinkler requirements;
  10. creating s. 1013.___, F.S.; requiring school districts to make certain
  11. unclaimed underused facilities available for lease to private schools and
  12. home education cooperatives; providing lease terms; requiring rulemaking;
  13. providing an effective date.
  15. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
  17. Section 1. Section 1002.___, Florida Statutes, is created to read:
  18. 1002.___ Home education cooperatives; facilities.—
  19. (1) As used in this section, the term "home education cooperative"
  20. means an association of parents, or an organization acting on their behalf,
  21. that provides instruction to students enrolled in a home education program
  22. under s. 1002.41 or to part-time students of a private school under
  23. s. 1002.42, and that meets in a facility not primarily used as a school.
  24. (2) A home education cooperative may meet in an existing assembly
  25. occupancy, including a church or other place of worship, a community center,
  26. or a library, and the facility retains its existing occupancy classification,
  27. and may not be classified as an educational occupancy, under the Florida
  28. Fire Prevention Code and the Florida Building Code if:
  29. (a) The number of persons present does not exceed the facility's
  30. approved assembly occupant load;
  31. (b) The cooperative meets no more than [3] days per week;
  32. (c) Rooms used by students below grade 1 are located on the level
  33. of exit discharge;
  34. (d) The facility has a fire alarm system meeting the requirements
  35. for its existing occupancy or a manual means of alerting all occupants; and
  36. (e) The cooperative conducts an emergency evacuation drill within
  37. the first 2 weeks of each term and at least [quarterly] thereafter.
  38. (3) A local fire official may not require the installation of an
  39. automatic sprinkler system or any other building modification in a facility
  40. described in subsection (2) solely because of its use by a home education
  41. cooperative.
  42. (4) Use of a facility by a home education cooperative that meets
  43. subsection (2) is a permitted accessory use of the facility for purposes of
  44. local zoning.
  45. (5) This section does not subject a home education cooperative or its
  46. members to any registration, reporting, or other requirement not otherwise
  47. provided by law.
  48. (6) The State Fire Marshal may adopt rules to implement this section.
  50. Section 2. Paragraphs (f) and (g) are added to subsection (19) of
  51. section 1002.42, Florida Statutes, to read:
  52. 1002.42 Private schools.—
  53. (19) FACILITIES.—
  54. (e) [Text as amended by ch. 2026-33, Laws of Florida, unchanged.]
  55. (f)1. As used in this paragraph, the term "outdoor learning facility"
  56. means an open-air pavilion, screened structure, existing agricultural
  57. building, or other shelter that has no enclosed corridor, is not mechanically
  58. conditioned for continuous occupancy, and does not exceed [2,500] square
  59. feet of covered area.
  60. 2. An outdoor learning facility used by a private school or by a home
  61. education cooperative as defined in s. 1002.___ is an accessory structure
  62. and may not be classified as an educational occupancy under the Florida
  63. Fire Prevention Code or the Florida Building Code.
  64. (g) An automatic sprinkler system is not required in any fire area of
  65. a private school in which every instructional space has at least one
  66. exterior exit door at the level of exit discharge without an intervening
  67. corridor, passageway, interior exit stairway or ramp, or exit passageway.
  69. Section 3. Section 1013.___, Florida Statutes, is created to read:
  70. 1013.___ Shared use of underused public school facilities.—
  71. (1) A school district facility, or portion of a facility, included on
  72. the list of underused, vacant, or surplus facilities published by the
  73. Department of Education under s. 1002.333(7) that is not claimed by a hope
  74. operator within [90] days after the list is published shall be made available
  75. for lease to private schools under s. 1002.42 and home education
  76. cooperatives under s. 1002.___.
  77. (2) A lease under this section:
  78. (a) May not require payment exceeding the district's actual cost of
  79. operating, maintaining, and insuring the space used;
  80. (b) Shall use a uniform lease template adopted by the State Board of
  81. Education;
  82. (c) Shall specify the space, days, and hours of use and may separate
  83. the lessee's hours from those of any public school in the facility; and
  84. (d) Shall require the lessee to maintain liability insurance and to
  85. screen employees and volunteers with direct student contact [under s. ___].
  86. (3) A facility that meets the requirements for an educational occupancy
  87. when the lease is executed satisfies the Florida Fire Prevention Code for
  88. the lessee's use without further classification or modification.
  89. (4) A district school board may deny or terminate a lease only for a
  90. documented safety reason, a material breach by the lessee, or the district's
  91. need to use the space for a public school.
  92. (5) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules to implement this
  93. section.
  95. Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2027.
Section-by-section

What each section does

Section 1Creates s. 1002.___

Defines a home education cooperative and gives it a safe harbor. When the co-op stays within the room's approved assembly load and meets five conditions, the building keeps its existing classification. A fire official cannot demand sprinklers or other changes because the co-op moved in.

Why the 3-day cap: NFPA 101 treats six or more students for 4+ hours a day or more than 12 hours a week as an educational occupancy. Most hybrid programs meet two or three days, which crosses that line and triggers school-building rules. The cap keeps the safe harbor aimed at part-week programs, not full-time schools.

Why subsection (5): Florida homeschool families have long resisted new registration. The safe harbor is optional and creates no new paperwork.

Section 2Amends s. 1002.42(19)

Adds two paragraphs after the Ch. 2026-33 language. Paragraph (f) defines an outdoor learning facility and makes it an accessory structure. Paragraph (g) waives sprinklers in any fire area where every classroom has its own ground-level door to the outside.

Where this comes from: Paragraph (g) is drawn from SB 1264 (2026, Calatayud), which passed Community Affairs 8-0 before dying in Education Pre-K–12. Paragraph (f) comes from the Sunshine Schools Act concept.

Section 3Creates s. 1013.___

Uses the underused-facilities list the Department of Education already publishes every April 1 for Schools of Hope. Hope operators keep first claim. After the window closes, private schools and co-ops may lease what remains at the district's actual cost, under a statewide template.

Why it matters for fire code: Public school buildings already meet educational-occupancy standards. Sharing them solves the facility problem without any code change.

Section 4Effective date

July 1, 2027, giving the State Fire Marshal and State Board of Education a session year to prepare rules and the lease template.

Fiscal & regulatory impact

What it costs

State and local government

  • No appropriation required.
  • State Fire Marshal and State Board of Education rulemaking can likely be absorbed within existing resources.
  • Districts recover their full cost on any lease and gain revenue from space that now sits empty.
  • Local fire officials review fewer occupancy reclassifications.

Private sector

  • Co-ops and small schools avoid sprinkler retrofits and reclassification costs triggered only by a change in use.
  • Churches and community organizations can host programs without capital work.
  • Lessees pay insurance and screening costs. Exact savings are indeterminate until case data is collected.
Anticipated objections

Questions we should expect

"Does this put children at risk?"

The draft never lets more people into a room than the code already allows there on Sunday. The youngest students stay on the exit level, alarms and drills are required, and the sprinkler waiver applies only where every classroom opens straight outside.

"Does this override local fire officials?"

Narrowly. Officials keep every power they have over the building itself. The draft only stops them from requiring new systems because of who is using a room that is already approved for that many people.

"Will districts lose control of their buildings?"

Districts keep three exits: documented safety concerns, lessee breach, and their own need for the space. Hope operators keep first claim, and districts recover full cost.

"Will this lead to regulation of homeschoolers?"

No. The safe harbor is optional, and subsection (5) says it adds no registration or reporting duties.

Coalition

Who to bring in

Potential sponsors

  • Sen. Danny Burgess, whose district produced the church case.
  • Sen. Alexis Calatayud, author of SB 1264's sprinkler language.
  • Sen. Jones and the SB 182 sponsors, to build on Ch. 2026-33.
  • Rep. Hillary Cassel, House sponsor of HB 833.

Allies and likely concerns

  • Likely allies: James Madison Institute, Step Up For Students, Florida Parent Educators Association, Teach Florida, ExcelinEd.
  • Engage early: fire marshal and fire chief associations, Florida School Boards Association, and the State Fire Marshal's office.
Before this goes to staff

Open questions to verify

Verify

Whether Ch. 2026-33 already resolves the Burgess case if that program is a registered private school with 150 or fewer students. If so, Section 1 is aimed squarely at co-ops that are not registered.

State Fire Marshal's office · Sen. Burgess's office
Verify

The correct name of the Pasco County hybrid program. The transcript renders it as "Darby Christian Academy."

Sen. Burgess's office
Verify

Whether the State Fire Marshal has adopted rules under Ch. 2026-33, and how they treat NFPA 101A evaluations.

Division of State Fire Marshal
Verify

The current Florida Fire Prevention Code edition, and the NFPA 101 occupancy threshold and sprinkler triggers in that edition.

Fire protection engineer or SFM
Verify

The source behind the ~41,000 declined-scholarship figure.

Ron Matus, Step Up For Students
Drafting

Section numbers, the background-screening cross-reference in Section 3, and the bracketed values.

Senate or House bill drafting