Florida Senate - 2016                                     SB 230
       
       
        
       By Senator Dean
       
       
       
       
       
       5-00275A-16                                            2016230__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to missing persons with special needs;
    3         creating s. 937.041, F.S.; creating a pilot project in
    4         specified counties to provide personal devices to aid
    5         search-and-rescue efforts for persons with special
    6         needs; providing for administration of the project;
    7         requiring reports; providing for expiration; providing
    8         an appropriation; providing an effective date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Section 937.041, Florida Statutes, is created to
   13  read:
   14         937.041 Missing persons with special needs pilot project.—
   15         (1) There is created a pilot project in Baker, Columbia,
   16  Hamilton, and Suwannee Counties to be known as “Project Leo” to
   17  provide personal devices to aid search-and-rescue efforts for
   18  persons with special needs in the case of elopement.
   19         (2) Participants for the pilot project shall be selected
   20  based on criteria developed by the Center for Autism and Related
   21  Disabilities at the University of Florida. Criteria for
   22  participation shall include, at a minimum, the person’s risk of
   23  elopement. The qualifying participants shall be selected on a
   24  first-come, first-served basis by the center to the extent of
   25  available funding within the center’s existing resources. The
   26  project shall be voluntary and free to participants.
   27         (3) Under the pilot project, personal devices to aid
   28  search-and-rescue efforts that are attachable to clothing or
   29  otherwise worn shall be provided by the center to the sheriff’s
   30  offices of the participating counties. The devices shall be
   31  distributed to project participants by the county sheriff’s
   32  offices in conjunction with the center. The center shall fund
   33  any costs associated with monitoring the devices.
   34         (4) The center shall submit a preliminary report by
   35  December 1, 2016, and a final report by December 15, 2017, to
   36  the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of
   37  the House of Representatives describing the implementation and
   38  operation of the pilot project. At a minimum, the report shall
   39  include the criteria used to select participants, the number of
   40  participants, the age of the participants, the nature of the
   41  participants’ special needs, the number of participants who
   42  elope, the amount of time taken to rescue such participants
   43  following elopement, and the outcome of any rescue attempts. The
   44  final report shall also provide recommendations for modification
   45  or continued implementation of the project.
   46         (5) The project shall operate to the extent of available
   47  funding within the center’s existing resources.
   48         (6) This section expires June 30, 2018.
   49         Section 2. For the 2016-2017 fiscal year, the sum of
   50  $100,000 is appropriated from the General Revenue Fund to the
   51  Center for Autism and Related Disabilities at the University of
   52  Florida for the purpose of implementing this act.
   53         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.