The Florida Department of Education Division of Technology & Innovation provides guidance for educational technology and has a role in technology planning and management, data center operations, and application development and support. The division includes the Bureau of Educational Technology, which assists school districts with technology planning and assessing technology availability in schools and districts, as well as with technology integration into classrooms.
To help guide technology planning in school districts, s. 1001.20, Florida Statutes, directs the department to develop a five-year strategic technology plan to assist districts in establishing digital classrooms. The department developed technology guidelines to assist schools and school districts in making technology decisions that best meet the instructional and assessment needs of their students. The department also provides wireless technology guidelines to assist schools and districts in making wireless infrastructure decisions that best meet the instructional and online assessment needs of their students.
District technology departments work to enable students, employees, and the community to become lifelong independent, productive learners with the technology and support they need for safe and successful technology integration in teaching, effective learning, and administration.
Federal Funding. There is some federal technology funding available through initiatives such as E-rate (part of the Universal Services Fund), which provides affordable access for U.S. schools and libraries to discounted eligible services such as broadband access and Wi-Fi networks. In Florida, the Department of Management Services is primarily responsible for the E-rate program.
Other Funding. Districts may fund technology through other means, including a district local capital improvement millage levy, a capital improvement fee, and a technology fee.
State of Florida Instructional and Educational Technology Funding. The 2023 appropriations bill did not provide any specific funding for instructional and educational technology. Student instructional and educational technology needs are now funded through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP).
Other Reports
Technology Counts 2022: Making Technology Work Better in Schools, Education Week, April 2022
2022 State of EdTech Leadership Survey Report, Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), 2022
Use of Educational Technology for Instruction in Public Schools: 2019–20, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), November 2021
How States Measure Digital Equity: Current and Proposed Benchmarks, State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), October 2021
What’s Wrong With Teacher PD for Technology—and How to Make It Better, Education Week, May 2021
Websites of Interest
Florida Association of Educational Data Systems
Florida Association of Management Information Systems
Florida Center for Instructional Technology
Florida Information Resource Network 2 (FIRN-2)
State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA)
Southern Regional Education Board, Educational Technology Cooperative
The K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center (K12 SIX)
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education Technology
Performance Information