From packing heat to drone delivery: A list of new Florida laws signed by DeSantis

Reams of regulations will be added to Florida law books Saturday when more than 200 new regulations and statutes go into effect.

The new laws include the toughest crackdown on immigration in the nation, a loosening of gun regulations, a later start times for public school students, and an expansion of homeowners' right to fly flags.

The 2023 session of the Florida Legislature produced 235 bills with a July 1 start date that were sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his approval.

DeSantis rejected two, vetoing measures on health care titles and advertisements.

That leaves 233 proposals standing to become law at midnight Saturday.

A $116 billion budget, a $2 billion voucher program and $2.7 billion in tax cuts

A state budget is the only bill the Legislature must pass. The record-setting $116 billion spending plan lawmakers and DeSantis agreed to includes $2 billion to fund a private school voucher program and another $2.7 billion in tax cuts for businesses and consumers.

While a handful of lawmakers wrote the budget, others engaged in policy debates and wrote legislation that determines what businesses can and cannot do, how public schools and local governments operate, and impacts the welfare of children and public safety.

The majority of those bills have an effective date of July 1, the start of the state’s fiscal year when money becomes available to fund their implementation.

Here’s a list of some of the most controversial, far-reaching and game changing, along with a list of new rights created in 2023.

Education: A bathroom bill, TikTok ban and later school start times in 2026

• The Bathroom Bill: HB 1521 establishes the Safety in Public Spaces Act and requires people to use the bathroom that lines up with their sex assigned at birth. It applies to restrooms at public and private schools and was among a flurry of anti-transgender bills lawmakers sent DeSantis that include a ban on gender-affirming care, restrictions on drag shows, and HB1069, which forbids employees and students in public schools from having to refer to another person by a title or pronoun that does not correspond to that person's sex.

Later Start Time: HB 733 requires Florida public middle schools to start no earlier than 8 a.m., and for high schools to begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Last school year, nearly a majority of public high schools began classes at 7:30 a.m. with 67% starting by 8. The start time adjustment must be made by July 2026.

• Extra curricula activities: SB 190 enables charter school students to negotiate with a private school to participate in the private school’s interscholastic extracurricular activities. Last year, 360,000 students were enrolled in 703 charter schools, and 400,000 were enrolled in private schools.

• TikTok ban: HB 379 prohibits students from accessing TikTok on school-owned devices or Wi-Fi. SB258 includes the app among applications created and maintained by “foreign country of concern” banned from city, county, and state issued phones and devices.

• Diversity Equity Inclusion prohibition: SB 266 forbids colleges and universities from spending money on so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The measure bans fields of study involving race and gender studies and requires a general education curriculum focused on Western European civilization.

• School Bus videos: SB 766 enables school districts to contract with vendors for school bus infraction detection systems that record when drivers fail to stop for a school bus displaying a stop signal.

• School Board Term Limits: HB 477 shortens the tenure for a school board member to eight consecutive years instead of 12, which lawmakers imposed when school board term limits were approved in 2022.

Public Safety: Permitless carry and golf cart crackdown

• Permitless carry: HB 543 allows Florida residents to skip a permit process that involves training and a background check that can take 90 days to carry a concealed firearm in public.

• Firearms tracking prohibition: SB 214 prohibits credit and debit card companies from assigning a merchant category code that identifies a business as a gun or ammunition retailer. Advocates argued the exemption is needed to prevent violation of privacy rights.

• Domestic violence and children: SB 130 establishes The Greyson Law Act, which mandates the court considers the interests of the child when deciding whether shared parental responsibility should be considered in cases where domestic violence had occurred.

• Human trafficking: SB 1690 & 7064 require hotels to provide enhance protections for adolescents, and enables victims to sue adult entertainment establishments, and to receive restitution from the sale of their traffickers’ properties. A Senate analysis found Florida had the third highest number of trafficking cases of children in 2020 and 2021.

• Kratom Restrictions: HB 179 establishes the Florida Kratom Protection Act, which prohibits the sale or delivery of kratom, a herbal opioid, to anyone under 21 years of age. The measure requires the Department of Agriculture to adopt rules for the sale and delivery of kratom products.

• Golf Cart licenses: HB 949 requires a driver’s permit or license for a person under the age of 18, or a government-issued photo ID for older drivers to operate a golf cart in Florida. Law enforcement reports children younger than 14 have been joyriding and have increasingly become a problem with the growing number of golf cart communities in the state.

New rights: Health care providers can be conscientious objectors and homeowners can fly police flags

• Florida Digital Bill of Rights: SB 262 applies to tech companies that make in excess of $1 billion in revenue and provides consumers the right to access, delete and correct personal information. Businesses and their processors are required to implement a retention schedule that deletes information two years after the consumer’s last interaction with the business.

• Rape victim identity protection: SB 98 provides victims of sex crimes the right to prohibit disclosure or dissemination of information that identifies them.

• Protection of Conscience Act: SB 1580 gives health care providers and payors the right to opt out of participation in, including payment, for certain services due to conscience-based objections. SB 1580 prohibits the Department of Health from taking disciplinary action based on such objections.

• The Nancy C. Detert Champions for Children Act provides foster children the right to participate in court proceedings and requires the Department of Children and Families caseworkers to inform foster children of their rights to safety, education, contact with siblings, and access to food, clothing, shelter and health care.

• Jail Visits: HB 119 provide members of the Legislature, judges, state attorneys, public defenders, and regional counselors visitation rights at county and municipal detention facilities.

• Flags: HB 437 provides – notwithstanding any homeowner association’s covenant, restriction, bylaw, rule, or requirement – that a homeowner may fly flags to honor first responders, 911 operators and corrections officers, along with a U.S. flag or the State of Florida flag.

New initiatives

New initiatives this year includes a partnership between the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota with the University of Florida to restore coastal seagrass, a Historic Cemeteries Programs at the Department of State to restore abandoned and historic burial grounds, and an Office of Children’s Ombudsman at the Department of Children and Families to assist foster children with court proceedings.

New preemption of local authority for city, county, and schoolboards includes a ban on prioritizing postsecondary education over direct work experience when hiring. Local governments are also prohibited from banning drone delivery services. 

And county courthouses are required to provide at least one public lactation space. The space must be hygienic, shielded from public view, and contain an electrical outlet. Counties have until Jan. 1, to comply.

CLARIFCATION: This story was updated to clarify that HB 949 requires a driver’s permit or license for a person under the age of 18, or a government-issued photo ID for older drivers to operate a golf cart in Florida

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahasse

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: New laws signed by DeSantis in Florida: Guns, drones, flags, bathrooms