Small school districts unite to lower health costs

TALLAHASSEE As many Florida school districts look to close schools to cope with declining enrollment, leading to budget cuts, some are banding together to reduce another key factor to their bottom lines: health insurance premiums.

Rising health insurance costs have pushed about a third of Florida’s 67 school districts to join the Florida Educator Health Trust (FLEHT), a nonprofit organization under the umbrella of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

By combining forces, smaller school districts have found a way to bargain for better health insurance policies for their teachers by turning to a self-insured plan. It’s eased the financial burden for districts already stretched thin by record-low birth rates and an expansion of school vouchers, which have led to lower enrollment and budget cuts.

“When we were fully insured, our insurance premium rose every single year, from anywhere from 6 percent to 20 percent,” said Mike Swindle, the superintendent for Hendry County. “When we switched to the self-insured model, in the first two years that we were in it, we saved over $3 million. It has been an absolute economic benefit to our district and to our teachers” Some public school employees are optimistic and say they’ve seen a drop in their prescription prices. But Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, said he’s still waiting to see those savings hit the pockets of teachers.

“so far, we have not seen any examples of a cooperative approach in which FLEHT has been able to address the out-ofcontrol costs of health care while saving districts and employees money,” Spar said.

FLEHT was established by the Florida School Board Insurance Trust, also under the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. While the latter helps small school districts Masreen with property and casualty insurance, FLEHT is specifically for health insurance.

The first three members were Hendry, Hardee and DeSoto counties. But starting in June 2025, the number of districts has surged to 23, including larger school districts like Polk and Brevard counties.

Currently, about 65,000 public school employees are now insured b y FLEHT. Comparatively, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools has 40,000 employees on its own and is the fourth largest public school district in the country.

The goal is to have FLEHT reach 30 districts by the end of the year, Swindle said.

Ted Roush, a former Suwannee County superinten- dent and now the executive director of FLEHT, said that when a district joins the trust, each district’s superintendent becomes a voting member and helps decide what vendors the districts will work with.

The program works more like a nonprofit versus the legacy broker market, Roush said.

“In every single scenario, after a board chooses to join FLEHT, we’re able to find and bring up savings initially right out of the gate” he said.

In the first quarter of 2026, FLEHT said its districts saved more than $7.8 million. In Hendry County, Swindle said the money they’ve saved has gone into their reserves, and the district has now started risk sharing with other school districts.

Risk sharing means several districts share the financial responsibility for health care claims, which spreads the burden and ensures no district is particularly affected by an expensive year of claims.