All Roll Calls
Yes: 184 • No: 0
FloridaSB 13442025SenateWALLET
Juvenile Justice
Sponsored By: Corey Simon (Republican)
Signed by Governor
AppropriationCriminal JusticeAppropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil JusticeFiscal PolicyHouse Calendar
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
21 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 4 costs, 13 mixed.
New limits and checks on youth shelters
Starting July 1, 2025, courts can place a child in shelter for up to 35 days, or up to 90 days after less restrictive options fail and a listed reason applies. Physically secure shelter has additional limits: it generally follows failed less restrictive placements, lasts up to 90 days, and may extend 30 days if reunification could happen then. Courts review secure placements at least every 45 days, and covered shelters need state approval, 24-hour supervision, and a child-care license. The law also removes former protections, including a shelter hearing within 24 hours and certain placement limits; children not accused of breaking the law cannot be placed in secure detention. Courts can order child support under this rule only for placement with a willing adult or licensed agency, not the listed state departments.
Runaway children get shelter and urgent care
Starting July 1, 2025, a responsible adult who receives a child after certain runaway, truancy, or behavior incidents must send a report within 3 days. The law allows shelter in listed situations and directs children with specified urgent physical, mental-health, or substance-use needs to appropriate care. A juvenile justice representative who reasonably believes a child was abandoned, abused, or neglected must report it to the central abuse hotline right away.
Parents may owe costs for child services
Parents, guardians, or custodians must use available health insurance for health services and may have to contribute to service costs based on ability to pay. They remain financially responsible for a child’s medical treatment even without agreeing to it. After a hearing, a court can order repayment if it finds the responsible person can pay. When a child receives temporary residential care, the court must order payment for care and counseling, considering insurance and ability to pay. If a family chooses private services instead of Department services for a child placed in shelter, the family pays all costs for those services.
Children get limits on juvenile detention
Beginning July 1, 2025, a child under court jurisdiction only under the family-services chapter cannot be placed in specified juvenile detention facilities or an adult jail. Shelters used for these children must be licensed by the state. A 90-day shelter placement must be reviewed within 45 days, including consideration of family participation and efforts to reunite the family. A court-ordered locked shelter must be approved, licensed, and provide continuous 24-hour supervision.
More routes to family services
Starting July 1, 2025, families can seek help through more routes, including a parent, child, school, or early truancy court contacting juvenile justice intake. Children with persistent running away, habitual truancy, or ungovernable behavior can qualify for services, though a pending delinquency petition or court-ordered delinquency supervision still blocks eligibility. The state provides information about local services and may use approved providers to deliver help; staff and some volunteers must meet screening rules. Reunification services are for the child and the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian, not foster parents.
More voluntary help for children and families
Beginning July 1, 2025, juvenile justice officials provide voluntary services for children facing truancy, homelessness, running away, or ungovernable behavior. The child and caregiver must agree to take part. A child under certain court-ordered supervision cannot take part; during an open abuse, neglect, or abandonment investigation, services need child-welfare agency agreement and available funding. Case meetings must include the child and caregiver; a caregiver’s written request must be met within 7 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, and a court referral requires a meeting within 30 days.
New court rules for children and parents
Beginning July 1, 2025, children must have a lawyer at each appearance in covered child-in-need or contempt cases, with limited exceptions; nonindigent parents or guardians may have to repay some costs. Lawyer compensation in child-in-need cases is capped at $1,000 for trial and $2,500 for appeal. Courts must advise families of the right to counsel and can allow time to obtain a lawyer. The law sets petition and screening rules, requires courts to consider service recommendations, and allows jurisdiction to begin when summonses are served or parties appear. A person who misses a properly noticed arraignment or hearing can be treated as consenting to an adjudication, and caregivers must attend review hearings or the court may still enter orders.
New court rules for children needing help
Starting July 1, 2025, a court must enter a civil order when it finds that a child needs services; this is not a criminal finding. The law removes the guarantee that the child has a lawyer at each appearance, while requiring a state attorney to represent the State in these cases. Hearings must happen within a reasonable time, replacing the former 7-day and 14-day deadlines for children in custody. Courts review cases and service plans, can close cases after substantial compliance, and must consider information about family services and reunification.
New rules for school truancy cases
Starting July 1, 2025, schools must contact parents about unexcused absences and begin interventions after 5 absences in a month or 10 in 90 days. Court petitions can follow at the stated truancy thresholds, including more than 15 unexcused absences in 90 days. Courts review truancy cases at least every 45 days and close them when students comply or are found to need services. A designated school representative or officer may take custody of a child who is absent without permission, suspended, or expelled and is not with a caregiver.
Schools step in earlier on attendance problems
Beginning July 1, 2025, schools must contact parents after each unexcused or unexplained absence. At 5 such absences in a month or 10 in 90 days, schools begin a review and may arrange a family meeting, services, or other learning options. For a child who is not enrolled, the school must give written notice to enroll or attend within 3 days; continued refusal after referral to the child study team can lead to reports to law enforcement and the State Attorney after 15 days. Schools and juvenile justice officials must coordinate truancy steps, and parents, school officials, and certain state agents may start attendance cases.
Truancy brings attendance orders, not delinquency
Beginning July 1, 2025, missing school alone does not make a child delinquent or a criminal, and courts can order attendance and services to support it. A court finding can require the student to make up work and attend school, and can require a caregiver to help ensure attendance. Courts may order classes, counseling, training, or up to 50 hours of community service; truancy shelter stays require an available bed and are limited to 5 days for a first contempt or 15 days for a later one. A parent may face training, counseling, community service, or a school-attendance order, but an employer cannot fire a worker solely for attending school with a child under court order.
Families pay fewer juvenile service fees
Beginning July 1, 2025, the juvenile justice department can no longer set or collect the covered service and treatment fees or use collection agencies or court petitions to collect them. The law also ends a specific court-ordered fee for shelter care. Parents may still have to contribute to service costs based on their ability to pay.
Juvenile officials can import Canadian medicines
Beginning July 1, 2025, pharmacists and wholesalers working for or under contract with Florida’s juvenile justice department can import prescription drugs from eligible Canadian suppliers. The drugs must be given to juveniles in the department’s custody. The law does not promise lower prices or savings for families.
Students can earn promotion after attendance steps
A student who responds to the attendance interventions and meets the district’s requirements to pass the current grade cannot be labeled a habitual truant under this rule. The student must be promoted to the next grade.
Changed filing deadlines for abuse claims
Starting July 1, 2025, the specified filing-deadline rule no longer covers abuse as defined in the chapter on children in need of services. The rule still covers abuse defined in two other state laws, with periods of 7 years after adulthood, 4 years after leaving the abuser’s care, or 4 years after discovering the abuse. The change may affect how long someone has to bring a covered claim.
Preventive services focus on keeping families together
Beginning July 1, 2025, preventive services focus on keeping children at home and avoiding family disruption that could lead to dependency supervision. The definition no longer includes services meant to prevent a child’s placement in the delinquency system.
Schools must track repeated absences
At the end of each school quarter, schools must report each minor student with 15 unexcused absences in 90 calendar days to the district school board. The board checks whether the school used required truancy steps or sought court intervention. A school that fell short must file a plan within 30 days and report back within 90 days on attendance or court referrals.
Courts can order more treatment for children
Beginning July 1, 2025, a judge can order a child under the court’s authority to receive substance-use evaluation, testing, or treatment. Courts can also refer children who need residential mental-health treatment or developmental-disability care to the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, as well as to the Department of Children and Families. The law does not say who pays for these services or promise a placement.
Shelter health checks and treatment limits
The Department can arrange a health screening for a child entering shelter care without court approval or caregiver consent. Screening does not let the Department approve treatment; treatment usually needs caregiver consent or a court order. An authorized agent can consent when a caregiver cannot be reached after hours and a court order cannot reasonably be obtained, or when a caregiver refuses necessary emergency treatment or treatment related to suspected abuse or neglect. That consent lasts only as long as reasonably needed to get court approval.
Juvenile offense and detention rules change
Starting July 1, 2025, a court finding that a minor violated the firearm law counts as a prior offense, even without a delinquency finding. Juvenile detention risk levels can move only one category up or down, and the state attorney may approve an upward departure in the stated cases. Courts may require conditional release after commitment. Battery against covered juvenile justice officers and facility staff remains a third-degree felony; the law changes some references defining covered staff.
New rules for children's case records
Starting July 1, 2025, courts keep records from all cases under the chapter until 10 years after the last entry or until the child turns 18, whichever comes first. School employees, superintendents, and school board employees may receive case information for their official duties. The information remains confidential, and the law limits who else may see it.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Corey Simon
Republican • Senate
Cosponsors
Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice
Affiliation unavailable
Criminal Justice
Affiliation unavailable
Fiscal Policy
Affiliation unavailable
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 4/29/2025
House Floor Vote
Yes: 114 • No: 0
Senate vote • 4/24/2025
Senate Floor Vote
Yes: 36 • No: 0
Senate vote • 4/17/2025
Fiscal Policy Vote
Yes: 17 • No: 0
Senate vote • 4/10/2025
Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice Vote
Yes: 8 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/25/2025
Criminal Justice Vote
Yes: 9 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Chapter No. 2025-153
6/23/2025Approved by Governor
6/19/2025Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
6/18/2025Ordered enrolled
4/29/2025SenateCS passed; YEAS 114, NAYS 0
4/29/2025HouseRead 3rd time
4/29/2025HouseAdded to Third Reading Calendar
4/29/2025HousePlaced on 3rd reading
4/29/2025HouseRead 2nd time
4/29/2025House1st Reading (Committee Substitute 3)
4/28/2025HouseBill added to Special Order Calendar (4/29/2025)
4/28/2025HouseBill referred to House Calendar
4/28/2025HouseIn Messages
4/24/2025HouseCS passed; YEAS 36 NAYS 0 -SJ 530
4/24/2025SenateRead 3rd time -SJ 530
4/24/2025SenateRead 2nd time -SJ 529
4/24/2025SenateCS/CS/CS by Fiscal Policy read 1st time
4/22/2025SenatePlaced on Special Order Calendar, 04/24/25
4/21/2025SenatePlaced on Calendar, on 2nd reading
4/18/2025SenatePending reference review -under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
4/18/2025SenateCS/CS/CS by- Fiscal Policy; YEAS 17 NAYS 0
4/17/2025SenateOn Committee agenda-- Fiscal Policy, 04/17/25, 9:00 am, 412 Knott Building
4/16/2025SenateCS/CS by Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice read 1st time
4/15/2025SenateNow in Fiscal Policy
4/14/2025SenatePending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
4/14/2025Senate
Bill Text
er
7/1/2025
c3
4/18/2025
c2
4/14/2025
c1
3/27/2025
Filed
2/26/2025