Party labels in Florida school board elections
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| Florida overview: • Election dates: On cycle |
| Key policies: • Election dates and timing • Party labels on the ballot |
| Key terms • On-cycle elections • Off-cycle elections • Off-year elections • Off-date elections • Party labels • Partisan elections • Nonpartisan elections |
School board elections in Florida are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates.
See law: Article IX, Section 4, of the Florida Constitution
There were 67 public school districts in Florida with a total of 358 school board member seats as of 2022. Those school districts operated a total of 4,200 schools serving 2,838,569 students.
Florida is one of 41 states with state laws providing for nonpartisan school board elections.
The information in this page was last updated in 2022. Please email editor@ballotpedia.org with any updates, corrections, exceptions, or improvements.
On November 5, 2024, Florida voters voted on a constitutional amendment to change school board elections from nonpartisan to partisan.
Florida state law governing party labels on the ballot for school board elections
Article IX, Section 4, of the Florida Constitution requires all school board elections to be nonpartisan, which means that party labels disclosing the party affiliation of candidates in school board elections cannot appear on the ballot.
This requirement prohibiting party labels for school board elections — among multiple other elections, campaign, and voting provisions — was approved by voters in 1998 as Amendment 11. Amendment 11 was referred to the ballot by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, a commission unique to Florida that convenes every 20 years to propose changes to the state constitution.
Amendments to the Florida Constitution can be proposed by the legislature, by a citizen initiative, by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, by the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, or through a constitutional convention. At least 60% of voters must approve proposed constitutional amendments to ratify them.
The Florida State Legislature referred a constitutional amendment to the November 2024 ballot that was designed to change school board elections from nonpartisan to partisan. It was defeated.
Examples of how school board candidates appear on the ballot in Florida
Below are excerpts from a sample ballot that shows both school board members listed without any party affiliation label along with candidates for other types of offices that do have party affiliation displayed:
How does Florida compare to other states?
Across the country, there are 13,187 public school districts governed by a total of 83,183 school board members. They are elected directly by voters except for a small handful of exceptions who are appointed.
As of July 2025, over 85% of school boards are elected without any party labels on the ballot identifying the candidates' affiliation with a political party. State laws in five states containing 1,169 school districts (9%) provide for party labels on the ballot for school board elections. In five states containing 554 districts (4%), state laws effectively provide for both the option of including or not including party labels on the ballot for school board elections. In the remaining states with elected local school board members, state law provides for school board elections without the inclusion of party labels on the ballot.
Elections in which party labels are included on the ballot are referred to as partisan elections. Elections in which party labels are not included on the ballot are referred to as nonpartisan elections.
The state laws of 40 states containing 11,472 school districts provide for school board elections without party labels identifying the affiliation of candidates listed on the ballot (nonpartisan elections).
State laws of five states provide for school board elections with party labels identifying the affiliation of candidates listed on the ballot (partisan elections):
State laws of five states containing 554 school districts effectively provide both options depending on the district. The details and the number of districts that fall in each category vary among the states. Those five states are:
See also
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School board election rules: |
School board election coverage: |
Terms and context: |
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Footnotes
