Takeaways From Tallahassee — Family Affair

The Family Law Section of The Florida Bar will award dozens of scholarships ahead of the 2022 Marital & Family Law Board Certification Review Course.

The review course will be at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando on Jan. 21 and 22.

“I am proud of the Family Law Section’s efforts to not only deliver such an important course and content, but also make it more accessible to those who are interested in participating by doubling the number of scholarships available this year,” said Heather Apicella, chair of The Family Law Section of The Florida Bar.

To apply for one of the 42 scholarships, an applicant must be a member in good standing with the Florida Bar and an active member of The Family Law Section of The Florida Bar. The application deadline is Oct. 11 at 5 p.m.

In addition to scholarships, the Family Law Section will provide reference guides to course judges. These guides will provide judges access to law and recent law changes.

“Together, these efforts by the Family Law Section promote professionalism and practice, both of which are to the benefit of the practitioner and public,” the Section said in an announcement.

Led by a five-member executive committee, the Family Law Section aims to “promote the highest standards of professionalism and legal advocacy,” according to its mission statement. Divorce, relocation, adoption, modification actions, alimony, and child support are among the Section’s practice areas.

“The Section is dedicated to promoting professionalism and practice, and these scholarships will enable practitioners to gain a deep understanding of the critical course material in order to achieve the best results for their clients, as well as obtain the most up to date changes in the law,” Apicella added.

More information about the 2022 Marital & Family Law Review Course and scholarship applications are available online.

Coming up, the usual assortment of tidbits, leftovers and not-ready-for-prime-time moments by Peter Schorsch, Drew Wilson, Renzo Downey, Jason Delgado and the staff of Florida Politics.

Take 5

The “Takeaway 5” — the Top 5 stories from the week that was:

DeSantis diagnosed with breast cancer — First Lady Casey DeSantis has been diagnosed with breast cancer. “As the mother of three young children, Casey is the centerpiece of our family and has made an impact on the lives of countless Floridians through her initiatives as First Lady,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. She received an outpouring of bipartisan support. Casey DeSantis, 41, is an Emmy award-winning former television host who has made promoting mental health central to her initiatives as First Lady. The First Family became the first since the 1970s to have young children when they moved into the Governor’s Mansion in 2019.

Education board votes to sanction more districts — Eight school districts face sanctions if they don’t reverse course on mask mandates. On Thursday, the State Board of Education found that the list of districts is violating the state mask mandate ban by requiring students to wear masks without parents to unilaterally opt them out from the mandates. “Districts are required to follow these policies,” Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran told the Board. “They can’t pick and choose which parts of the law they want to follow.” Alachua and Broward counties had previously been sanctioned. Those sanctions drew a standoff between the state and federal governments when the state docked school district board members’ pay. The federal government subsidized school districts to compensate, but the state further sanctioned districts in response.

Education Department asks feds for $2.3B in relief — Florida became the last state to submit its plan to draw down its remaining pot of federal school relief money, amounting to $2.3 billion. The Education Department submitted the plan two days after the U.S. Department of Education asked why Florida was the last holdout after missing a June 7 deadline. The plan proposes to boost reading and math programs and help students who want to learn a trade, and it acknowledges the challenges of the pandemic, encouraging mask use and devoting money to online learning. Democrats criticized DeSantis for Florida’s last-place distinction.

Fried: Masking reduced school outbreaks — Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is imploring school districts to require masks for students after unveiling an analysis showing more COVID-19 cases in districts that don’t require masks. DeSantis and his administration have argued that mask mandates haven’t reduced the spread of COVID-19. That’s not what data compiled from the state’s school districts says, according to Fried. “Ron DeSantis is lying to you about masks in schools … In every single case, kids were better off in school districts that required masks than school districts that did not,” Fried said. The administration disputes how Fried’s office made its calculations, including that the three districts that required masks from the first day of school had 3.5 times fewer cases per student than districts that never required face coverings.

Feds target school board threats — U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asked law enforcement to address the increasing number of threats targeting school board members, teachers and other employees in public schools, particularly around conversations about masking and critical race theory. DeSantis, who has opposed school mask mandates and railed against critical race theory, accused Garland of weaponizing the Department of Justice and using the FBI to intimidate parents. “Florida will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent,” DeSantis said. Corcoran similarly criticized the feds. “We will not be strong-armed, nor will we allow others to be,” he said.

Robocalls rising

Attorney General Ashley Moody is warning Floridians of a staggering increase in robocalls.

Robocalls are up 16%, 450 million, from the same time last year. The Federal Communications Commission cites robocalls as the agency’s top consumer complaint.

Moody is working with attorneys general from across the country to fight back against illegal robocalls to protect Floridians from scams connected to calls.

“The pandemic changed the way we work, learn and socialize — further popularizing the tools we use to communicate remotely, including cellphones. With this rise in cellphone use, it is no surprise that we are seeing an increase in the number of robocalls targeting Floridians,” Moody said. “Please remain vigilant when receiving calls from unknown sources and never give personal or financial information in response to an unwanted solicitation.”

The Attorney General recommends hanging up on robocalls and calling bank and utility providers directly if you receive an unexpected call from them. Never give personal or financial information to an unknown caller.

Moody had taken multiple actions against robocall scams since taking office in 2019, including in August, when she distributed nearly half a million dollars to nonprofits after shuttering an illegal charity telefunding operation.

Anyone who receives a robocall can file a complaint with the Florida Attorney General’s Office online at MyFloridaLegal.com or by calling 1 (866) 9NO-SCAM.

Manatee massacre

Fried requests that the federal government quickly label the West Indian manatee as an endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently conducting its five-year status review of the manatee’s classification. Despite opposition, Fish and Wildlife downlisted manatees from endangered to threatened in 2017 for the first time in 50 years, and Florida has seen a record-high 957 manatee deaths this year. More manatees died in the first four months of 2021 than in the entirety of 2020, reflecting a die-off Fried called “alarming.”

Risk factors that led the federal government to declare manatees endangered in 1967 — like their degrading habitat, climate change, pollution, speeding boats and seagrass loss — remain.

“These continued risks have unfortunately been realized, particularly as it pertains to seagrass loss and declining water quality, which have been widely attributed to the record number of manatee deaths being reported in Florida,” Fried said.

Last week, FWS declared 23 species extinct, and Fried wants manatees, which are native to the Sunshine State, to avoid a similar fate.

“There are few things more quintessentially Florida than the manatee, which is why it is absolutely vital that every step to protect these treasured creatures is taken immediately, restoring its status as an endangered species,” Fried said.