Governor's Final Action on FCCB Priorities for 2021 Legislative Session

The following FCCB priority bills were passed during the 2021 Legislative Session and have been acted on by Governor DeSantis:

SCHOLARSHIP EXPANSION
2021 Catholic Days at the Capitol Issue
HB 7045 (Education & Employment) / SB 48 (Diaz): Support
Eliminates from all scholarship programs the requirement that scholarship recipients be previously enrolled in public schools; increases the maximum income eligibility and the scholarship amounts for the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC); folds the McKay and Gardiner Scholarships for students with special needs and unique abilities into the FES; Catholic Days Backgrounder
House: Passed (79-36); Senate: Passed (25-14)
Governor: Signed 5/11/21 (See brief on bill signing in earlier E-update.)

PARENTAL RIGHTS
HB 241 (Grall) / SB 582 (Rodrigues, R.): Support
Ensures the right of parents to review instructional materials and curriculum is clearly communicated; establishes parental consent requirements for medical care provided to a minor child; FCCB letter of support.
House: Passed (78-37); Senate: Passed (24-15)
Governor: Signed 6/29/21

OPPORTUNITY AND INTEGRITY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS
HB 1475 (Tuck) / SB 2012 (Stargel): Support
Protects the rights of female athletes and promotes equality in women's sports by recognizing key biological differences between men and women and requiring separate sex-specific athletic teams. Provisions of the bill were amended to SB 1028 (Hutson) and passed by both chambers; FCCB letter of support. 
House: Passed (79-37); Senate: Passed (23-16)
Governor: Signed 6/1/21

DUAL ENROLLMENT
HB 281 (Duggan) / SB 52 (Rodrigues, R.): Support
Provides access to dual enrollment courses for all Florida high school students. Under current law, public school and home school students have free, unencumbered access to dual enrollment courses; however, private school students have very limited access. 
House: Passed (83-32); Senate: Passed (26-14)
Governor: Signed 6/24/21 (See brief above.)

EARLY LEARNING
HB 419 (Grall) / SB 1282 (Harrell): Support
Streamlines agency oversight of the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) Program; reasonably and effectively increases accountability for VPK providers; provides more useful and accurate assessments to monitor student progress. 
House: Passed (118-0); Senate: Passed (40-0)
Governor: Signed 5/4/21

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND EDUCATION
HB 545 (Chaney) / SB 410 (Rodriguez, A.): Support
Requires school districts to make sex education curriculum and instructional materials available to parents via a link on the district website; requires district school boards to annually approve all instructional materials used to teach reproductive health in an open, noticed public meeting. 
House: Passed (82-24); Senate: Passed (36-4)
Governor: Signed 6/4/21

PURPLE STAR CAMPUSES
HB 429 (Learned) / SB 938 (Wright): Support
Requires the Department of Education to establish a Purple Star Campus Program to assist students from military families as they transition to new schools. 
House: Passed (117-0); Senate: Passed (40-0)
Governor: Signed 6/4/21

EDUCATOR PREPARATION AND CERTIFICATION
HB 1159 (Busatta Cabrera) / SB 934 (Wright)
Revised provisions relating to state-approved teacher preparation, career, and professional development programs. 
House: Passed (114-0); Senate: Passed (40-0)
Governor: Signed 6/29/21

CONCEALED WEAPONS ON SCHOOL CAMPUSES
HB 259 (Williamson) / SB 498 (Gruters): Oppose
Authorizes the carrying of concealed weapons or firearms on property owned, rented, leased, borrowed, or lawfully used by a church, a synagogue, or any other religious institution, unless the institution has a policy specifically prohibiting persons from carrying a firearm on such property. Schools that seek to be gun-free are required to enact policies to that effect; other schools may resort to allowing parents or faculty to provide armed security who are far less trained than required by law today; FCCB letter of opposition. 
House: Passed: (76-37); Senate: Passed (24-16)
Governor: Signed 6/29/21

COMBATING PUBLIC DISORDER
HB 1 (Fernandez-Barquin) / SB 484 (Burgess): Oppose
Aims to address public disorder by creating new riot-related crimes and enhancing penalties on existing offenses. The FCCB opposed the bill as it is unnecessary and potentially harmful. Any violence committed during a riot, or at any time, is already prosecutable, and it is unnecessary to raise penalties for those crimes. Additionally, some broad terms in the bill could potentially criminalize some of our ministries' public activities such as praying in front of an abortion facility, sidewalk counseling, and prayer vigils to end the use of the death penalty; FCCB letter of opposition
House: Passed (76-39); Senate: Passed (23-17)
Governor: Signed 4/19/21

LAW ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES
HB 7051 (Judiciary): Support
Includes several provisions to address civil unrest such as collecting data on use-of-force by law enforcement, de-escalation training, and limiting chokeholds. FCCB proposed these approaches as an alternative to HB 1. HB 7051 also prohibits a child younger than seven years of age from being arrested, charged, or adjudicated delinquent, unless the violation of law is a forcible felony. 
House: Passed (113-0); Senate: Passed (40-0)
Governor: Signed 6/29/21

JUVENILE DIVERSION PROGRAM EXPUNCTION
HB 93 (Smith, D.) / SB 274 (Perry): Support
Requires the expunction of a nonjudicial arrest record of a minor who has successfully completed a diversion program for any eligible offense, rather than only a misdemeanor.
House: Passed (117-0); Senate: Passed (39-0)
Governor: Vetoed 6/29/21

PERSONAL CARE ATTENDANTS
SB 1132 (Bean) / HB 485 (Garrison): Support
Codifies into law an emergency rule prompted by the pandemic that authorized nursing homes to begin using a new category of employee to support non-clinical services for residents; provides an on-the-job training path to Certified Nurse Assistant licensure.
House: Passed (106-11); Senate: Passed (32-7)
Governor: Signed 6/24/21

FLOODING AND SEA LEVEL RISE
HB 7019 (Environment, Agriculture & Flooding) / SB 1954 (Rodrigues, R.): Support
Creates the Resilient Florida Grant Program, which authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to provide grants to local governments to help combat rising sea levels. Requires DEP to start tracking flood vulnerability and sea level rise on an ongoing basis. The data will be used to inform a Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan to be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature every three years.
House: Passed (118-0); Senate: Passed (40-0)
Governor: Signed 5/12/21

BUDGET ITEMS:
The FY21-22 budget signed by Governor DeSantis on June 2 included:

Pregnancy Support Services - An additional $500,000 allocation to the Florida Pregnancy Care Network (FPCN), bringing total funding to $4.5 million. 

Affordable Housing - Approximately $209 million for the Sadowski Affordable House Trust Fund, protected from being swept to general revenue by legislation. This is about half of the revenue that would have been available for affordable housing in previous years. 

Dual Enrollment - $15.5 million for the Dual Enrollment Program. (See brief above.)

Governor DeSantis vetoed:

Hormonal Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (HLARC) - A $2 million recurring allocation for a funding expansion of abortifacient family planning. (See brief above.)