The Florida Senate

186.805  Data Bank on Older Floridians.--

(1)  It is the intent of the Legislature to provide for the development, implementation, and maintenance of a Data Bank on Older Floridians in order to assure that accurate data is available for sound planning and decisionmaking by state legislative committees and by local and state agencies when considering matters related to the health, financial conditions, housing, education, transportation, and service needs of the elderly citizens of Florida.

(2)  The Data Bank on Older Floridians shall be operated and maintained by one or more of the private or public institutions of higher education in Florida that operates a program for the study of aging or a center on gerontology. After an assessment of the capacity of the institutions of higher education in the state to operate and maintain the data bank, the Board of Regents, Division of Universities, Department of Education, shall contract for the operation and maintenance of the data bank with the institution or institutions that it determines to be most qualified to perform the functions outlined in this act. In awarding the contract for operating and maintaining the data bank, the board shall consider private as well as public institutions. The initial phase in the establishment of the data bank shall be the development of the planning and evaluation components. Such components shall be formulated consistently with federal and state plans on aging. The functions of the data bank shall include, but not be limited to:

(a)  Making an inventory of information and data about the elderly in Florida, whether available from federal, state, or local sources; obtaining copies of such data; and evaluating the appropriateness and usefulness of the data.

(b)  Determining what additional types of data about the elderly are necessary for state and local program planning and decisionmaking throughout Florida; formulating plans for the acquisition and generation of such data; coordinating with state and local agencies, including the institutions of the State University System, in the acquisition of available information and data; ensuring that state agencies cooperate in providing data; giving special attention to minimizing or eliminating duplication of effort in the collection of data; and providing for the maintenance of all data obtained.

(c)  Providing for the wide dissemination and publication of demographic, economic, health, educational, and social information and data about the elderly in Florida.

(d)  Publishing, at least annually, a report on the changing health, economic, and social status of the elderly in Florida.

(e)  Periodically organizing and conducting conferences to review the planning and policy requirements and the adequacy and implications of information and data assembled and available in the Data Bank on Older Floridians.

History.--ss. 1, 2, ch. 78-293.

Note.--Former s. 23.0193.