Florida Senate - 2019                                     SB 688
       
       
        
       By Senator Diaz
       
       
       
       
       
       36-00267-19                                            2019688__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to disabled parking permits; amending
    3         s. 320.0848, F.S.; authorizing a licensed physical
    4         therapist to issue a certification of disability for a
    5         disabled parking permit; providing an effective date.
    6          
    7  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
    8  
    9         Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section
   10  320.0848, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   11         320.0848 Persons who have disabilities; issuance of
   12  disabled parking permits; temporary permits; permits for certain
   13  providers of transportation services to persons who have
   14  disabilities.—
   15         (1)
   16         (b)1. The person must be currently certified as being
   17  legally blind or as having any of the following disabilities
   18  that render him or her unable to walk 200 feet without stopping
   19  to rest:
   20         a. Inability to walk without the use of or assistance from
   21  a brace, cane, crutch, prosthetic device, or other assistive
   22  device, or without the assistance of another person. If the
   23  assistive device significantly restores the person’s ability to
   24  walk to the extent that the person can walk without severe
   25  limitation, the person is not eligible for the exemption parking
   26  permit.
   27         b. The need to permanently use a wheelchair.
   28         c. Restriction by lung disease to the extent that the
   29  person’s forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for 1 second,
   30  when measured by spirometry, is less than 1 liter, or the
   31  person’s arterial oxygen is less than 60 mm/hg on room air at
   32  rest.
   33         d. Use of portable oxygen.
   34         e. Restriction by cardiac condition to the extent that the
   35  person’s functional limitations are classified in severity as
   36  Class III or Class IV according to standards set by the American
   37  Heart Association.
   38         f. Severe limitation in the person’s ability to walk due to
   39  an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition.
   40         2. The certification of disability which is required under
   41  subparagraph 1. must be provided by a physician or a physician
   42  assistant licensed under chapter 458 or, chapter 459, by a
   43  chiropractic physician licensed under or chapter 460, by a
   44  podiatric physician licensed under chapter 461, by an
   45  optometrist licensed under chapter 463, by an advanced practice
   46  registered nurse licensed under chapter 464 under the protocol
   47  of a licensed physician as stated in this subparagraph, by a
   48  physical therapist licensed under chapter 486 by a physician
   49  assistant licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459, or by a
   50  similarly licensed physician from another state if the
   51  application is accompanied by documentation of the physician’s
   52  licensure in the other state and a form signed by the out-of
   53  state physician verifying his or her knowledge of this state’s
   54  eligibility guidelines.
   55         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.