SB 418 Florida Senate · 2026 Regular Session

Law Enforcement Officer Interactions with Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Summary

Law Enforcement Officer Interactions with Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder; Requiring the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to establish a program to improve communication between individuals with autism spectrum disorder and law enforcement officers under certain circumstances; requiring the department to develop and make available to individuals with autism spectrum disorder a certain envelope and card by a specified date; defining the terms “agency” and “autism spectrum disorder”; requiring the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission within the Department of Law Enforcement to establish an employment training component relating to individuals with autism spectrum disorder, etc.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Mar 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Signed into Law

Jun 2026

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Signed Jun 16, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

S 418 e1 → S 418 er · 2 edits

MINOR

The bill progressed from its first engrossed version to an enrolled status, indicating it has been approved by the legislature and is ready for the governor's signature. A key substantive change was added to the description of the required materials: the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles must now provide both a specific envelope and a card to individuals with autism spectrum disorder, whereas the previous version only mentioned the envelope. The bill's title and metadata were also updated to reflect this final enrolled state.

Scope change

The scope of the required materials provided by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles was expanded to include a card in addition to the previously required envelope.

REQUIREMENT

The requirement for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to provide a card to individuals with autism spectrum disorder was added to the list of deliverables, expanding the support materials available to this population.

TECHNICAL

The bill status was updated from 'First Engrossed' to 'Enrolled', and the document identifier was changed from 'e1' to 'er' to reflect the final legislative version.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 19, 2026 · House Mar 10, 2026

How they voted

39–0

Passed · 1 other

Total votes 40

Feb 19, 2026

D Democratic11

11 Yea

100% Yea

I Independent1

1 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican28

27 Yea 1

96% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jun 16, 2026

Signed into law

Approved by Governor

legislature

Mar 11, 2026

Upper · Passed

Passed as amended; YEAS 37 NAYS 0

upper

Mar 11, 2026

Upper · Passed

Concurred in 1 amendment(s) (376741)

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed as amended; YEAS 111, NAYS 0

lower

Mar 10, 2026

Lower · Passed

Amendment 376741 adopted

lower

Mar 9, 2026

Committee

Bill referred to House Calendar

lower

Feb 19, 2026

Upper · Passed

Passed; YEAS 38 NAYS 0

upper

Feb 12, 2026

Upper · Passed

Favorable by- Fiscal Policy; YEAS 19 NAYS 0

upper

Feb 9, 2026

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Fiscal Policy, 02/12/26, 9:00 am, 110 Senate Building

upper

Feb 4, 2026

Upper · Passed

Favorable by Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice; YEAS 8 NAYS 0

upper

Jan 30, 2026

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice, 02/04/26, 3:45 pm, 37 Senate Building

upper

Jan 27, 2026

Upper · Passed

Now in Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice

upper

Jan 26, 2026

Upper · Passed

Favorable by Criminal Justice; YEAS 8 NAYS 0

upper

Jan 21, 2026

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Criminal Justice, 01/26/26, 3:30 pm, 37 Senate Building

upper

Jan 13, 2026

Introduced

upper

Nov 17, 2025

Committee

Referred to Criminal Justice; Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice; Fiscal Policy

upper

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor