Florida Senate - 2015                       CS for CS for SB 330
       
       
        
       By the Committees on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; and
       Criminal Justice; and Senator Dean
       
       
       
       
       586-03792-15                                           2015330c2
    1  
    2                        A bill to be entitled                      
    3         An act relating to missing persons with special needs;
    4         creating s. 937.041, F.S.; establishing a pilot
    5         program in specified counties for the purpose of
    6         providing personal assistive technology devices to
    7         persons with special needs to aid in certain search
    8         and rescue efforts; providing for administration of
    9         the pilot program; requiring submittal of certain
   10         reports to the Governor and the Legislature by
   11         specified dates; providing for expiration of the pilot
   12         program; providing an effective date.
   13          
   14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   15  
   16         Section 1. Section 937.041, Florida Statutes, is created to
   17  read:
   18         937.041 Missing person with special needs pilot program.—
   19         (1) There is created a pilot program in Baker, Columbia,
   20  Hamilton, and Suwannee Counties to be known as Project Leo for
   21  the purpose of providing personal assistive technology devices
   22  to aid search and rescue efforts for persons with special needs
   23  in the case of elopement.
   24         (2) Participants for the pilot program shall be selected
   25  based on criteria developed by the Center for Autism and Related
   26  Disabilities at the University of Florida. Criteria for
   27  participation must include, at a minimum, the individual’s risk
   28  of elopement. The qualifying participants shall be selected on a
   29  first-come, first-served basis by the center to the extent of
   30  available funding within the center’s existing resources. The
   31  pilot program shall be voluntary and free to participants.
   32         (3) Under the pilot program, personal devices to aid search
   33  and rescue efforts that are attachable to clothing or otherwise
   34  worn shall be provided by the center to the sheriff’s offices of
   35  the participating counties. The devices shall be distributed to
   36  participants by the county sheriff’s offices in conjunction with
   37  the center. The center shall fund any costs associated with
   38  monitoring the devices.
   39         (4) The center shall submit a preliminary report by
   40  December 1, 2015, and a final report by December 15, 2016, to
   41  the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of
   42  the House of Representatives describing the implementation and
   43  operation of the pilot program. At a minimum, the report must
   44  include the criteria used to select participants, the number of
   45  participants, the age of the participants, the nature of the
   46  participants’ special needs, the number of participants who
   47  elope, the amount of time taken to rescue participants following
   48  elopement, and the outcome of any rescue attempts. The final
   49  report must also provide recommendations for modification or
   50  continued implementation of the pilot program.
   51         (5) The pilot program shall operate to the extent of
   52  available funding within the center’s existing resources.
   53         (6) This section expires June 30, 2017.
   54         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2015.