The Florida Education Association, alongside the United Faculty of Florida, has filed a petition against the Florida Department of Education for the recent State Board of Education Rule 6A-14.092. The rule is an unlawful and unconstitutional overreach of agency authority that violates Florida’s Administrative Procedure Act and undermines academic freedom and campus safety.
The rule for general education courses, which is slated to take effect just weeks before the Spring semester of 2026 begins, forces college professors and graduate assistants (graduate students seeking a degree and who assist in research, teaching, and other duties) to use a new program approved by the state to submit final syllabi 45 days before the start of class for public consumption. This mandate hamstrings professors and graduate assistants, making it much more difficult to remain flexible and responsive in the way they teach their courses. Furthermore, the 45-day timeline—which is not currently found in any statute and is entirely manufactured by the Department of Education—is not realistic when course loads change consistently based on enrollment, and the vagueness allows for unbridled discretion. The new system for syllabi also poses potential security risks as the dates, times, and locations of all classrooms would be publicly available.
“The latest rule from the Florida Department of Education points to a continued attack on academic freedom from the state of Florida,” said Robert Cassanello, President of United Faculty of Florida. “Professors are experts in their field and should be able to modify their instruction based on the development of events or circumstances out of their control. Imagine a hurricane that closes the school down—should students not be able to expect flexibility from their professors? Furthermore, every college in Florida has a responsibility to keep its staff and students safe both from physical harm and intellectual theft. Through this rule, the Department of Education has overstepped its statutory legal authority and is forcing professors to comply with the use of a public-facing platform that serves to place a target on the backs of our professors and students. More than being an overreach, it is flat out dangerous.”
The petition argues that the rule:
- exceeds the grant of rulemaking authority, as there is no statutory authority for the Department of Education to regulate syllabi with such stringent standards;
- enlarges, modifies, and contravenes the current statute by imposing unworkable and unflexible requirements;
- is vague, as the rule lists only “instructional materials” which could include anything from PowerPoints to spontaneous teaching aids, meaning educators are by default at risk of violating the rule and simultaneously have no guidance on what is actually required; and
- is arbitrary and capricious as the imposed requirements do not correlate to the delegated legislative authority.
According to the petition, “The Florida Administrative Procedures Act mandates that agencies may exercise only the authority that is granted to them by the legislature. Agency action constitutes an ‘invalid exercise of delegated legislative authority’ if an agency ‘goes beyond the powers, functions, and duties delegated by the Legislature.’”
“When an unelected board passes a rule to micromanage how professors teach a class, they not only demonstrate how little they understand the teaching profession, but they also demonstrate how little they respect it,” said Andrew Spar, President of the Florida Education Association. “This is a continued pattern by the Florida Department of Education to undermine academic freedom in our higher education institutions. The law is clear: agencies cannot impose conditions on educators that the Legislature never authorized. Florida’s college professors and graduate assistants work hard each day to ensure every student is valued and respected. We ask that the Department of Education treat our educators with the same level of respect and stop adding unnecessary conditions.”
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CONTACT: FEA Press, feapress@floridaea.org, (850) 201-3223
The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with 120,000 members. FEA represents PreK-12 teachers, higher education faculty, educational staff professionals, students at our colleges and universities preparing to become teachers and retired education employees.
