For more than two decades, Florida's approximately 6,000 certified school counselors were legally required to be evaluated using teacher-focused frameworks that bore no relation to their specialized training, ethical responsibilities, or programmatic contributions to student success. This structural mismatch actively undermined understanding of the school counselor's role, fueling widespread confusion among administrators and policymakers about what a comprehensive school counseling program is, what it is designed to achieve, and the appropriate duties of a school counselor. The Florida School Counselor Association (FSCA) set out to correct this long-standing, systemic problem — and in 2026, it did.  

Through a strategic, multi-year advocacy effort culminating in January through March 2026, FSCA secured the unanimous passage of HB 753 and SB 1036 — landmark legislation mandating that counselors be evaluated using the Florida School Counseling Standards (2023) rather than teacher evaluation models. The same legislation removed irrelevant certification exam barriers that had contributed to Florida's growing counselor shortage, directly impacting all 6,000 school counselors serving more than 2.8 million PreK–12 students across 67 districts.

Recognizing that policy change alone cannot shift practice, FSCA moved immediately from legislation to implementation. The Advocacy & Government Relations Committee developed a comprehensive School Counselor Evaluation Tool aligned to the Florida School Counseling Standards and disseminated it to all 67 Florida school districts. 

This project represents a full policy-to-practice continuum: diagnosing a structural problem, achieving landmark legislative reform, and equipping every district with tools for immediate implementation.