Florida Senate - 2017 CS for SB 780
By the Committee on Education; and Senator Stargel
581-02685-17 2017780c1
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to adoption benefits; amending s.
3 409.1664, F.S.; revising the definition of the term
4 “qualifying adoptive employee” to include persons
5 employed by charter schools and the Florida Virtual
6 School for the purpose of extending adoption benefits
7 to those employees; authorizing such employees of
8 charter schools and the Florida Virtual School to
9 apply retroactively for the adoption benefit in
10 certain circumstances; providing an effective date.
11
12 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
13
14 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) and subsections
15 (3) and (7) of section 409.1664, Florida Statutes, are amended,
16 and paragraph (d) is added to subsection (2) of that section, to
17 read:
18 409.1664 Adoption benefits for qualifying adoptive
19 employees of state agencies.—
20 (1) As used in this section, the term:
21 (b) “Qualifying adoptive employee” means a full-time or
22 part-time employee of a state agency, a charter school as
23 defined in s. 1002.33, or the Florida Virtual School established
24 under s. 1002.37 who is paid from regular salary appropriations,
25 or otherwise meets his or her the state agency employer’s
26 definition of a regular rather than temporary employee, and who
27 adopts a child within the child welfare system pursuant to
28 chapter 63 on or after July 1, 2015. The term includes
29 instructional personnel, as defined in s. 1012.01, who are
30 employed by the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.
31 (2) A qualifying adoptive employee who adopts a child
32 within the child welfare system who has special needs described
33 in s. 409.166(2)(a)2. is eligible to receive a lump-sum monetary
34 benefit in the amount of $10,000 per such child, subject to
35 applicable taxes. A qualifying adoptive employee who adopts a
36 child within the child welfare system who does not have special
37 needs described in s. 409.166(2)(a)2. is eligible to receive a
38 lump-sum monetary benefit in the amount of $5,000 per such
39 child, subject to applicable taxes.
40 (d) A qualifying adoptive employee of a charter school or
41 the Florida Virtual School may retroactively apply for the
42 adoption benefit if he or she was employed by a charter school
43 or the Florida Virtual School at the time of the adoption of a
44 child from the child welfare system pursuant to chapter 63 and
45 the adoption occurred on or after July 1, 2015.
46 (3) A qualifying adoptive employee must apply to his or her
47 agency head or, in the case of an employee of a charter school
48 or the Florida Virtual School, to the school director to obtain
49 the monetary benefit provided in subsection (2). Applications
50 must be on forms approved by the department and must include a
51 certified copy of the final order of adoption naming the
52 applicant as the adoptive parent. Monetary benefits shall be
53 approved on a first-come, first-served basis based upon the date
54 that each fully completed application is received by the
55 department.
56 (7) The Chief Financial Officer shall disburse a monetary
57 benefit to a qualifying adoptive employee upon the department’s
58 submission of a payroll requisition. The Chief Financial Officer
59 shall transfer funds from the department to a state university,
60 Florida College System institution, school district unit,
61 charter school, the Florida Virtual School, or water management
62 district, as appropriate, to enable payment to the qualifying
63 adoptive employee through the payroll systems as long as funds
64 are available for such purpose.
65 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.