FDDC’s 2026 Legislative Briefing - Week 7: Mar. 2, 2026

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To track bills of interest, visit:

Senate Bills https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bills/2026
House Bills https://www.flhouse.gov/sections/bills/bills.aspx

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Week 7 Florida Legislature 2026 Session Update: Budget and Key Bills Take Shape

Friday, February 27, 2026, day 48 of the 60-day legislative session. Attention should be shifting to budget negotiations, but high-level negotiations to establish allocations for the various areas of the budget (e.g., education, health and human services, public safety, etc.) have not concluded.

Once the allocations are set, we expect an intense conference process will follow given the very limited amount of time the two sides will have if they are to adjourn on time.

See Week 6 FDDC Legislative Briefing here for a more detailed discussion of the budget process.

See The FDDC 2026 Legislative Priorities

HB 0915- Medical Assistance Eligibility for Working Persons with Disabilities (Tant)

SB 1016- Medical Assistance Eligibility for Working Persons with Disabilities (Bradley)

Codifies the Working People with Disabilities program in the Florida Statute. The program allows people with I/DD who work to earn income up to 550% of the Medicaid income standard and assets of $13,000 and retain eligibility for Medicaid Home and Community Based Services.

(House bill passed and sent to Senate; Senate bill passed its final committee and is on the calendar. We believe the Senate will pass the House bill.)

HB 0453- Requirements for Standard High School Diploma (Gossett-Seidman)

SB 0556- Requirements for Standard High Diploma (Berman)

Expand the ways students can satisfy physical education and performing arts requirements for a standard high school diploma. Allow completion of 2 years of marching band to fulfill both the physical education and performing arts requirements instead of just one or the other. Permits students with disabilities to participate in the Special Olympics as a substitute for the physical education requirement.

Allows Special Olympics participation to satisfy high school PE requirements (House – bill passed and sent to Senate; Senate – bill has passed final committee and is on 2nd reading on the Senate calendar)

SB 418 / HB 365: Establishes a voluntary “Blue Envelope” program for individuals on the Autism spectrum and mandates law enforcement training

(Senate – passed and sent to the House; House – passed with an amendment in its last committee)

HB 0109- Corporal Punishment- (Lopez)

SB 0662- Corporal Punishment (Bernard)

Prohibits school district employees from using corporal punishment on public school students.

SB 0152- Medicaid Provider Networks (Harrell)

HB 0517- Medicaid Provider Networks (Tramont)

Requires Medicaid managed care plans to negotiate and pay dentists at or above agency rates while strengthening provider network requirements for dental services.

HB 0859- Exceptional Students and Video Cameras in Public Schools (Chambliss)

SB 1170- Education (Calatayud)

Expand the use of video cameras and audio in self-contained classrooms upon a parent’s request to ensure greater transparency and monitoring of special education services.

Requires video cameras in self-contained exceptional education classrooms (House – passed and sent to the Senate; Senate – in its 2nd committee with one additional committee remaining)

SB 0072- Individual Educational Plans (Harrell)

HB 0615- Individual Educational Plans (Tendrich)

Requires timely evaluations, IEP meetings, and enhanced parent engagement for students receiving exceptional student education services. Enhance parent engagement for students receiving exceptional student education services.

HB 565 / SB 794: Addresses APD operations, including core competencies for support coordinators

(House bill – scheduled to be considered by the full House next week; Senate bill scheduled to be heard in its final committee on Monday)

HB 0487- Repair of Mobility Devices (Eskamani)

SB 0586- Repair of Mobility Devices (Smith)

Requires original equipment manufacturers to provide owners and independent repair providers with the necessary documentation, software, parts, and tools to repair mobility devices.

SB 1088- Guardianship (Jones)

HB 1099- Guardianship (Aristide)

Prohibit guardians from restricting adult wards‘ contact except under certain circumstances and require notices regarding changes in residential settings and persons entitled to receive information and visits.

HB 1405- Statewide Project for Missing Persons with Special Needs (Duggan)

SB 1570- Statewide Project for Missing Persons with Special Needs (Gaetz)

Revives a program (Project Leo) administered by the Centers for Autism and Related Disabilities that supplies tracking devices to individuals with disabilities at risk of elopement.

(House – scheduled for consideration by the full House next week; Senate – on agenda for its final committee on Tuesday)

HB 1507- Medicaid Dental Pilot Program (Harris)

SB 1640- Medicaid Dental Pilot Program for Persons with Disabilities (Smith)

Establishes a 3-year Medicaid dental pilot program for persons with disabilities in Region B.

HB 6003- Recovery of Damages for Medical Negligence Resulting in Death (Trabulsy)

SB 1700- Recovery of Damages for Medical Negligence Resulting in Death (Grall)

Removes the statutory bar preventing adult children and parents of an adult child from recovering damages in medical negligence wrongful death cases.

HB 851 / SB 206- Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Harrell): Requires additional training on teaching students with autism for instructional personnel.

(House – scheduled to be considered by the full House next week; Senate – scheduled to be considered in its final committee on Monday)

HB 0411- Terminology Associated with Autism (Maggard)

SB 1652- Terminology Associated with Autism (Burgess)

Updates the definition of autism to align with the most recent edition of the DSM and rename it to include autism spectrum disorder.

HB 411 related to the definition of autism had a proposed committee substitute (PCS) which changes the title to ‘an act related to developmental disabilities’ and completely changed the substance (and title) of the bill. The PCS changes the title to 'an act related to developmental disabilities' (vs act related to terminology associated with autism') and adds Tatton-Brown-Rahman syndrome to the list of I/DD's in chapter 393. The bill no longer addresses changing the definition of autism to include the DSM V criteria.

This is not a comprehensive list. Bills that appear to be dead are intentionally excluded. For the status of additional legislation, visit our tracking page or contact us directly.

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