2019 Legislative Session | Week 1
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Greetings everyone, from the Florida Children’s Council! We are very appreciative of your interest in monitoring issues and advocating on behalf of Florida’s children and families. As you may have already noticed, our team at the Council has changed up our format this year for
Capitol Connection
. It is our hope that this new format will be easier to read and will keep you just as informed. Each week we will give a brief summary of the high points from the executive and legislative branches and then will share the bills that have moved that week and presentations, press conferences and conversations that are of interest. Since this is Week 1, we have provided an exhaustive list of the bills that we are monitoring this year. Moving forward, we will only be including the ones that were considered and/or acted upon during that week.
Below you will find a list of bills filed for this session related to children, youth and families. The first column lists the bill number and sponsor and provides a hyperlink to the bill text and history. The second column represents the number of committees of reference for each bill and the final column gives a brief description of the bill. Here is a key to help guide you in your review of where a bill is:
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We are excited for the new year and all of the opportunities to ensure effective policy is passed that best support our children and families. As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
The Florida Children’s Council
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Opening Day & State of the State Address
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The 2019 60-day legislative session opened on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. With new leadership in the House, Senate and Governor's office, the six committee weeks leading up to session set the tone, with a clear focus on priorities.
During his opening remarks, Senate President Bill Galvano welcomed Senators by thanking them for their hard work and encouraging thoughtfulness moving forward. He reminded members that they serve large, diverse districts in a large, diverse body that has a responsibility to uphold a level of decorum. He encouraged support of a larger, state-wide agenda rather than an individual agenda and reiterated that their purpose, both collectively and individually, is to serve the people of Florida.
Speaker Jose Oliva was more specific with his remarks and focused largely on the need to address what he calls the healthcare industrial complex, specifically drawing attention to the need to repeal certificate of need. He also spoke of the need to allow nurse practitioners the freedom to work to the full level of their training, the need for reform in the higher education system and the need to continue to empowering parental choice. The Speaker committed support to our neighbors still recovering from Hurricane Michael in the panhandle and to Governor DeSantis’ push for environmental support.
After convening both chambers together, Governor Ron DeSantis delivered the State of the State address highlighting his visions for education, the environment, elected official accountability and his commitment to helping restore the panhandle. He committed himself to continuing Florida's current economic growth and reforming the requirements for occupational licenses. He also discussed his vision for enhancing the state’s university and college system and emphasized his focus on skills-based education. In the much discussed realm of healthcare, Governor DeSantis pledged his support of policies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and health care pricing transparency. He re-iterated his support of the families who lost a loved one in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas tragedy and his commitment to supporting the recommendations of the MSD Commission. He concluded his speech with a plea to prohibit sanctuary cities and highlighted the state’s condemnation of socialism and of any entity that attempts to boycott, divest or sanction the State of Israel
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These
similar
bills authorize the court to receive & consider information provided by the Guardian ad Litem Program & child's attorney ad litem if the child is under jurisdiction of dependency court, add requirements related to transferring dependent children from DJJ facilities & grant additional authorizations to the GAL Program.
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These
identical
bills require DOH to issue a noncertified copy of an original birth certificate to an adoptee of legal age or a descendant of a deceased adoptee with the full names and ages of birth parents, date of birth of the child and the full name of the child given at birth.
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These
identical
bills a
uthorize circuit courts to create early childhood court programs and provide associated requirements related to hiring community coordinators and a statewide training specialist
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These
identical
bills require that court costs for all adoptive parents who adopt children in the custody of DCF are waived rather than reimbursed by the Department.
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These
similar
bills expand the list of incidents that constitute harm to a child's health to include seatbelt or child restraint violations and require cases be referred by DCF to Child Protection Teams if a child's injuries or death were caused or exacerbated by being improperly restrained in a vehicle.
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These
similar
bills refine definition of term "officer, employee, or agent," to include any member of a child protection team carrying out duties as a team member, as it applies to immunity from personal liability of any injury or damage suffered as a result of any act or omission of action within the scope of his or her employment or function.
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These
identical
bills require notification of the parent or guardian prior to a student's removal for involuntary examination so long as the notification does not cause a delay that jeopardizes the student's or other individual's physical or mental health or safety.
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These
similar
bills
create new section in statute to provide clear direction to the courts, attorneys, guardians, and individuals about the proper jurisdiction for guardianship proceedings. Intended to supplement, not replace existing systems
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These
similar
bills create the Foster Children's Bill of Rights, require the Florida Children's Ombudsman to serve within DCF to provide children in out-of-home care with a means to resolve issues related to their care, services or placement, and require caseworkers to provide caregivers with information regarding child care subsidies.
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These
identical
bills
aim to protect the welfare of minor children by providing for transitions of custody that consider each child’s developmental stage and psychological needs.
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Related to child welfare case plans and communication requirements for all parties involved.
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This bill provides central abuse hotline requirements for the Department of Children and Families, reporting requirements of citizens, use of information reported by the department and training of animal control officers on how to detect child abuse, abandonment and neglect.
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This bill creates new requirements for DCF placing a child in shelter care, addresses administration of psychotropic medications, termination of guardian assistance benefits in some instances and requirements for young adults in foster care.
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This proposed legislation creates a bill of rights for foster parents and requires the Department of Children and Families to provide for mediation with foster parents and adopt rules to implement the bill of rights.
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These
similar
bills provide for a subsidy up to $300 for foster parents who are required to enroll a child in a child care program when the program cost exceeds the subsidy provided by the early learning coalition.
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These
similar
bills aim to speed up the dependency process for abused children removed from their home to achieve permanency within 1 year. Permanency can be reunification with parents, placement with a permanent guardian, often a relative, or adoption. The bills make changes such as requiring updated parent contact information, making referrals to services for parents within 7 days, requiring parents to notify the court of any barriers to completing their case plan, and to clearly inform parents that if they do.
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These
identical
bills require notification to a parent or guardian prior to a student's removal for an involuntary examination as long as such notification will not cause a delay that jeopardizes an individuals physical or mental safety.
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These
identical
bills establish the Parents Bill of Rights to provide a consistent mechanism for notifying parents of information related to the health, well-being, and education of the child. The bills additionally prohibit health care practitioners from performing surgical procedures, physical or mental health evaluations or prescribing medication to a minor child with out written parental consent except in the case of life-threatening emergencies.
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These
similar
bills establish standards for instruction of circuit and county court judges who have responsibility for dependency cases regarding the recognition and treatment of head trauma and brain injury in a child from birth to five years of age. The bills additionally require the establishment of a communication process between DCF and law enforcement and creates a pilot for three lead agencies to develop and implement a program to more effectively provide case management to children under six years of age.
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These
identical
bills require vehicles used by child care facilities to transport children be equipped with reliable alarm system that prompts driver to inspect vehicle for children before exiting and requires DCF to adopt minimum safety standards & list of approved alarm systems.
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These
identical
bills create
a coordinated assessment system that allows for the tracking the progress of students from VPK through grade 2, include assessments of children and teacher-child interactions and require the Office of Early Learning to adopt a minimum program score for the purpose of determining program effectiveness.
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These
identical
bills require the principals of public elementary schools to facilitate communication and collaboration with private prekindergarten providers and requires the Office of Early Learning and Early Learning Coalitions to provide support for this collaboration
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This proposed legislation allows a parent to enroll child in a family engagement computer adaptive prekindergarten program, authorizes an early learning coalition to administer the VPK Program to these students and adds requirements for the implementation of the program.
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These
identical
bills require the Office of Early Learning to establish both formal and informal pathways for early learning teachers in the school readiness program to ensure access to specialized professional development.
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These
similar
bills rename Competency-Based Education Pilot Program as the Mastery-Based Education Pilot Program and allow local school districts to participate in an Alternative Credit and Letter Grade Systems for middle and high schools.
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These
similar
bills establish rights for Florida's students and require new school facilities located outside of evacuation zones to comply with the public shelter design criteria.
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These
identical
bills require health education in public schools to include information on the warning signs of human trafficking and authorizes student opt-out option. The bills also require the Department of Legal Affairs to develop campaigns to increase human trafficking awareness and develop and operate hotline to receive reports of potential human trafficking activity.
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This proposed legislation establishes a back-to-school sales tax holiday from Aug. 2, 2019 - Aug. 11, 2019 which exempts purchases of clothing, school supplies, personal computers and computer accessories under a certain dollar amount from sales tax.
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This bill would modify the requirements associated with the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program and removes restrictions in current law regarding funding for the operation of schools and performance funding for industry certifications.
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These
similar
bills require all instructional materials for school civics education courses be reviewed by the Joint Center for Citizenship and approved by the Commissioner of Education.
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These
similar
bills revise the distribution requirements for certain safe school allocation funds and requires district school superintendents to remit specified unused funds from the 2018-2019 fiscal year to the DOE for redistribution.
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These
identical
bills prohibit public school employees from using corporal punishment on a public school student and removes corporal punishment as an option to manage student behavior.
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This bill requires a school district that enters into collective bargaining with its employees to post to its website a list of all items that the parties seek to negotiate at least 10 days before the first meeting of the school district and bargaining agent.
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These
identical
bills add the option for high school students to obtain one half credit in United States Government and Civic Engagement to fulfill the three credit social studies requirement currently in statute.
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This proposed legislation creates the Florida Internship Tax Credit Program allowing a tax credit for qualified businesses equal to the amount of wages paid by the business to a degree-seeking student intern if the internship meets the requirements.
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These
identical
bills require district school boards to review rules relating to suspension during a school board meeting to include data regarding the disability, race, gender and recidivism rate of each student who received suspension and academic and counseling programs available to suspended students.
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These
identical
bills require the Department of Education to provide statewide, standardized assessments in any language to be administered to any student with limited English proficiency. The student may choose to take the assessment in English or their native language.
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This bill allows public schools to contract with the county health department or other entity for the delivery of services provided to students under the school health services program.
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This bill allows for an earned computer science credit, or an industry certification in computer science to meet high school science requirements currently in statute. Provides for high-quality professional development in computer science for teachers.
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Creates the Summer Youth Service Learning Program to match low and moderate-income students with outstanding academic records with appropriate summer employment opportunities with state agencies, local governments, school districts and private businesses to be funded by the Legislature.
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Requires certain organizations offering child care through after-school programs to be licensed as child care facilities.
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Provides the ability for cameras to be installed in school buses for the purposes of documenting traffic violations. Allows citations to be issued based and provides associated requirements, timelines and rights of all parties involved.
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Prohibits children charged as adults from being held in a jail or facility intended for the detention of adults as they await trial unless found by the court to be in the best interest of justice, provides items court must consider when determining the interest of justice and places maximum time frames for children to be held in adult facilities.
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These
identical
bills remove a requirement that limits juvenile diversion program expunction to programs for misdemeanor offense.
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These
similar
bills
prohibit a youth from being placed in isolation except in certain circumstances. The restrictions for placing a youth in isolation created in the bill are the same for youth in the custody of the Department of Corrections (DOC) or the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
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These
similar
bills a
llow for a child who is transferred to adult court to request in writing a hearing to determine whether the child must remain in adult court. Provides what is to be considered by the judge in making the determination.
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These
similar
bills remove the involuntary mandatory waiver and provide requirements for state attorney related to prosecuting a child as an adult.
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These
identical
bills revise criteria allowing a person who committed a felony to be sentenced as a youthful offender if the crime was committed before the defendant turned 21.
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These
identical
bills increase the age of children who must be secured in a crash-tested, federally approved child-restraint device from 5 to 6 years old and increases the age of children for whom a separate carrier, integrated child seat or booster seat may be used.
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These
identical
bills define terms and processes related to individuals eighteen years old and younger and use of solitary confinement by the Department of Corrections. Requires DOC and county commissions to review existing policies for compliance.
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These
similar
bills revise provisions relating to the Immunization Registry by allowing a college or university student age 19-24 the right to refuse to be included in the immunization registry and requires health care practitioners to report vaccination data to the immunization registry for children birth to 18 unless a guardian refused to have the child included in the registry by meeting certain requirements.
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These
similar
bills require a health insurance policy that provides coverage on an expense-incurred basis for a family member of the insured to provide coverage for children birth to 21 for hearing aids prescribed, fitted and dispensed by a licensed audiologist and establishes the minimum coverage amount of $3,500 per ear within a 24 month period.
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Builds upon the school safety and security foundation established in SB 7026 (2018) by addressing the school safety and security recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, and strengthening accountability and compliance oversight authority.
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These
identical
bills require a home inspector to include information relating to swimming pool safety features in his or her report and require that new residential swimming pools meet an additional requirement in order to pass final inspection and receive a certificate of completion
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These
identical
bills require the Florida Building Commission to incorporate specified requirements related to baby-changing tables into the Florida Building Code including requiring any building with a public restroom built after Oct. 1, 2019 to include a baby-changing table.
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These
similar
bills add the vaccine for the human papillomavirus to the list of required school health immunizations
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Exempts the sale of diapers and incontinence undergarments from sales tax
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Requires volunteer athletics personnel working for entities that administer high-risk youth athletic activities on land owned, leased or operated by the state to complete a Department of Health approved course that provides information on the prevention of injuries.
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These
similar
bills make the publishing of pictures, on an openly viewable platform, of firearms, BB guns, air guns or any device resembling a firearm by a minor a first degree misdemeanor. Provides for parent/ guardian responsibilities and requires DJJ to establish alternative sanctions.
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These
similar
bills permit AHCA to pay for the cost of donor human breast milk for which a licensed physician or nurse practitioner has issued an order for an infant who is unable to receive maternal breast milk but requires breast milk nourishment.
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Prohibiting a landlord from evicting a tenant or terminating a residential rental agreement because the tenant or the tenant’s minor child is a victim of actual or threatened domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, or stalking
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Children with Unique Abilities
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These
identical
bills establish the Exceptional Student Education Taskforce within the Department of Education to develop and provide recommendations to the State Board of Education for the improvement of accommodations for standardized assessments of exceptional students. The State Board of Education must submit its recommendations based on the information from the task force to the Governor, Senate President and House Speaker by November 2019.
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These
identical
bills, r
elated to students with disabilities. define associated terms, requirements for use of physical restraint, exclusionary and nonexclusionary time, training procedures, monitoring and reporting requirements of staff.
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These
identical
bills require each public school to create a School Staff Assistance for Emergencies (SAFE) Team and a plan for instances when a student with a disability walks away, runs away or otherwise leaves supervision or school grounds before the scheduled end of the day.
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