Sen. Barbara Sharief

Drowning Prevention Education; Requiring the Department of Health to develop educational materials on drowning prevention safety measures and safe bathing practices for specified purposes; providing requirements for such materials; requiring hospitals, birth centers, and home birth providers to provide the educational materials to new parents and caregivers as part of their postpartum education and care, etc.

Prohibited Discrimination Based on Hairstyle; Citing this act as the "Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act” or “CROWN Act"; prohibiting discrimination based on protected hairstyle against a student in the K-20 public education system; defining the terms “race” and “protected hairstyle” for purposes of public K-12 nondiscrimination requirements; defining the terms “race” and “protected hairstyle” for purposes of antidiscrimination requirements for private schools participating in the state school choice scholarship program, etc.

Standards for Stormwater Systems; Requiring stormwater systems owned by counties and municipalities, respectively, to comply with specified Department of Transportation standards; providing inspection requirements for such systems; specifying that certain local standards are superseded, etc.

Public Records/Petitions for Injunctions for Protection Against Serious Violence by a Known Person; Providing an exemption from public records requirements for petitions, and the contents thereof, for injunctions for protection against serious violence by a known person; providing an exemption from public records requirements for information that can be used to identify a petitioner or respondent in such a petition for an injunction; providing a statement of public necessity, etc.

Injunctions for Protection; Defining the terms “serious violence by a known person” and “serious bodily injury”; creating a cause of action for an injunction for protection in cases of serious violence by a known person; prohibiting the clerk of the court from assessing a fee for the filing of such injunction for protection; requiring the clerk of the court to electronically transmit copies of specified documents within a certain timeframe after a court issues such injunction for protection; requiring law enforcement officers to accept a certified copy of such injunction for protection from the petitioner and immediately serve it upon a respondent, etc.

Homestead Property Tax Benefits for Long-term Owners; Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to provide that the assessed value of homestead property may not increase after 20 years of ownership and residency, to provide an additional homestead tax exemption equal to 50 percent of the assessed value of property, other than school district levies, for persons who have owned and resided on the property as their permanent residence for 30 years or more, and to provide an effective date, etc.

Homestead Property Exemption for Persons Age 65 or Older; Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to create a total exemption of homestead property from ad valorem taxation, other than school district levies, for persons 65 years of age or older who have owned and maintained the property as their permanent residence for at least 5 years and whose household income does not exceed a certain amount, adjusted annually by the cost-of-living index, and to provide an effective date, etc.

Impact of Perimenopause and Menopause on Women’s Health; Requiring the Department of Health to establish a perimenopause and menopause policy workgroup; requiring the department, in collaboration with others, to develop and make publicly available on its website information relating to perimenopause and menopause, etc.

Grants for Genetic Counseling Education; Creating the Genetic Counseling Education Enhancement Grant Program within the State University System; requiring the Board of Governors, subject to legislative appropriation, to award grant funds to state universities for specified purposes; requiring the program to reward excellence among genetic counseling programs based on specified criteria; prohibiting such funds from being used for specified purposes, etc.

Maddy summarySB 96 establishes a Veterans Dental Care Grant Program within Florida's Department of Veterans’ Affairs to provide oral health care to eligible veterans. It directly affects Florida veterans with household incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level. The bill appropriates $500,000 from the General Revenue Fund for the 2026-2027 fiscal year to fund this program, which will cover dental services for qualifying veterans. The program becomes effective July 1, 2026, and is administered by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.