2021 Florida Legislature

Advocates for poor, elderly and disabled individuals, who have been pressing the DeSantis administration to leverage the additional funding since spring, hailed the plan.

The Personal Care Attendants program allows workers without certification to temporarily work at facilities if they meet training and education requirements, but must be certified within four months.

The bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis means colleges and universities are protected from class-action lawsuits from those seeking to recoup money for students after the shift to all-virtual instruction.

The law ends the practice of confining students with disabilities to a room by themselves. Another bill signed Monday allows for higher payments to parents of infants born with a brain injury.

Senate President Wilton Simpson "sprinkled in" the $2 million that would have gone toward increasing access for low-income girls and women to long-acting reversible contraception.

It would allow parents to request that children in kindergarten through fifth grade be retained to help them catch up.

The law stems from people using authentic-looking websites to run scams that purportedly offer access to COVID-19 vaccines or personal protective equipment.

Florida lawmakers have tried for years to curb youth Baker Acts. This year, with the passage of parental notification measures, they may have finally moved the needle.

The bill would enumerate rights of parents related to health care and education. But critics contend it could turn physicians into criminals if they provide care to children without first getting parental consent.

The governor was also given a $196.3 million tax package that includes a formula change for distributing cigarette tax revenues to boost funding for Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center.