DeSantis signed nearly 200 laws this year. Here are the highlights.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s 2024-2025 fiscal year will arrive next week with a fresh $116.5 billion budget and nearly 200 new laws.

Lawmakers also tucked another $2 billion in spending into bills, with that money not showing up in the budget (HB 5001). Among the measures slated to take effect July 1:

• HB 21: Provides $20 million to compensate victims of abuse at the shuttered Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna and another state reform school in Okeechobee County
• HB 49: Eases regulations on hours that 16- and 17-year-old youths can work, including allowing parents and school superintendents to waive a 30-hour-a-week limit when school is in session.
• HB 87: Bolsters self-defense arguments for people who shoot bears on their property.
• HB 117: Allows the release of grand jury testimony involving the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
• SB 330: Creates behavioral-health teaching hospitals linked to universities to help address issues with treating patients for mental-health conditions.
• HB 385: Gives courts the power to require parents to use “neutral safe exchange” locations at sheriffs’ offices when they share custody of children.
• HB 415: Directs the Florida Department of Health to set up a website that provides information and links to certain “pregnancy and parenting resources.”
• HB 433: Prevents local governments from imposing requirements on businesses about heat-exposure protections for workers.
• SB 544: Requires the Department of Health to establish a network of providers to participate in a swimming-lesson voucher program.
• HB 601: Restricts citizen review boards from investigating alleged wrongdoing by police officers.
• HB 919: Requires political ads that contain “images, video, audio, graphics, or other digital content” created using artificial intelligence to include a disclaimer.
• HB 931: Authorizes school districts to allow volunteer school chaplains.
• SB 968: Designates property at Tyndall Air Force Base in Bay County and within the former boundaries of Homestead Air Force Base in Miami-Dade County as “spaceport territory.”
• SB 1264: Adds the history of communism to required instruction in public schools starting in the 2026-2027 school year.
• HB 1291: Prevents “identity politics” from being included in college and university teacher-preparation programs.
• HB 1503: Allows what are known as “surplus lines” carriers to take out some non-homesteaded properties from the state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
• HB 1645: Repeals parts of state law about greenhouse-gas emissions and bans wind turbines offshore.
• SB 1764: Increases penalties for participants in “street takeovers.”
• SB 7002: Part of a school “deregulation” effort led by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, includes allowing districts to publish notices of intent to adopt tentative budgets on school board websites instead of in newspapers.
• SB 7028: Includes $200 million to continue the My Safe Florida Home program, which helps residents harden their homes against storms.
• SB 7032: Provides tuition and fee waivers for high-school dropouts who pursue diplomas and workforce credentials at state colleges.
• HB 7063: Prevents strippers under age 21 from working in adult-entertainment businesses.

By Jim Turner, News Service of Florida