Florida Senate - 2021                              CS for SB 682
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; and
       Senator Bracy
       
       
       
       
       586-02348-21                                           2021682c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to fees; reviving, reenacting, and
    3         amending s. 741.327, F.S., relating to certification
    4         and monitoring of batterers’ intervention programs and
    5         fees; requiring the Department of Children and
    6         Families to assess and collect an annual certification
    7         fee from batterers’ intervention programs; requiring
    8         certain persons attending certified batterers’
    9         intervention programs to pay a fee for each program
   10         attended; requiring the batterers’ intervention
   11         programs to collect and remit such fee to the
   12         department; providing an exception; requiring
   13         certification and user fees to be deposited in the
   14         Domestic Violence Trust Fund for a specified purpose;
   15         providing a contingent effective date.
   16          
   17  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   18  
   19         Section 1. Notwithstanding the repeal of section 741.327,
   20  Florida Statutes, in section 14 of chapter 2012-147, Laws of
   21  Florida, section 741.327, Florida Statutes, is revived,
   22  reenacted, and amended to read:
   23         741.327 Certification and monitoring of batterers’
   24  intervention programs; fees.—
   25         (1) Pursuant to s. 741.32, The Department of Children and
   26  Families shall Family Services is authorized to assess and
   27  collect from batterers’ intervention programs:
   28         (a) an annual certification fee not to exceed $300 for the
   29  certification and monitoring of batterers’ intervention
   30  programs.
   31         (b) An annual certification fee not to exceed $200 for the
   32  certification and monitoring of assessment personnel providing
   33  direct services to persons who:
   34         1. Are ordered by the court to participate in a domestic
   35  violence prevention program;
   36         2. Are adjudged to have committed an act of domestic
   37  violence as defined in s. 741.28;
   38         3. Have an injunction entered for protection against
   39  domestic violence; or
   40         4. Agree to attend a program as part of a diversion or
   41  pretrial intervention agreement by the offender with the state
   42  attorney.
   43         (2) All persons required by the court to attend a
   44  batterers’ intervention program domestic violence programs
   45  certified by the Department of Children and Families must Family
   46  Services’ Office for Certification and Monitoring of Batterers’
   47  Intervention Programs shall pay a an additional $30 fee for each
   48  29-week program they attend. The program shall collect and remit
   49  this fee to the Department of Children and Families Family
   50  Services. A person deemed indigent by the court is not required
   51  to pay this program fee.
   52         (3) The fees assessed and collected under this section
   53  shall be deposited in the Executive Office of the Governor’s
   54  Domestic Violence Trust Fund established in s. 741.01 and
   55  directed to the Department of Children and Families Family
   56  Services to fund the cost of certifying and monitoring
   57  batterers’ intervention programs.
   58         Section 2. This act shall take effect on the same date that
   59  SB 680 or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation
   60  is adopted in the same legislative session or an extension
   61  thereof and becomes a law.