The Florida Senate

753.004  Supervised visitation projects.--Within its existing resources, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Florida may establish supervised visitation projects in communities throughout the state.

(1)  It is the intent of the Legislature to coordinate the efforts of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Florida Family Visitation Network as follows:

(a)  The ¹Florida Family Visitation Task Force shall act as the board of advisers for the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences projects.

(b)  The ¹Florida Family Visitation Task Force shall develop and administer in collaboration with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Florida an evaluation instrument as outlined in ¹s. 753.003 and include the results of that instrument in the report required of the ¹Florida Family Visitation Task Force by ¹s. 753.003.

(c)  The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Florida shall take an active role in developing and providing relevant educational activities as a means of strengthening parenting skills.

(2)  Any community participating in a visitation project supervised by the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences shall provide a local match of $15,000, exclusive of existing county extension funds, to the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and $2,000 to the Institute for Family Violence Studies at Florida State University to carry out the responsibilities under s. 753.002. The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has discretion to waive all or part of their portion of the local match.

(3)  A supervised visitation project must be approved by the board of county commissioners of the county in which the project is located if a county-owned facility is used as a visitation site or personnel paid by the county participate in the supervised visitation program.

(4)  This section shall take effect July 1, 1996.

History.--s. 13, ch. 96-402.

¹Note.--Section 753.003, which created the Florida Family Visitation Task Force, was repealed by s. 74, ch. 99-5.