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Florida Senate
-
2026
SB 7018
By
the Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs
586-01896-26 20267018__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to child welfare; amending s. 39.01,
3 F.S.; revising the definition of the term “visitor”;
4 amending s. 409.1455, F.S.; renaming the Step into
5 Success Workforce Education and Internship Pilot
6 Program as the Step into Success Workforce Education
7 and Internship Program; deleting a provision limiting
8 the duration of the program; requiring the
9 department’s Office of Continuing Care to develop
10 certain cohorts within specified regions, collaborate
11 with certain organizations and recruit mentors and
12 organizations, and provide eligible former foster
13 youth with internship placement opportunities;
14 deleting a provision requiring that the program be
15 administered in a certain manner; deleting obsolete
16 language; requiring the Office of Continuing Care to
17 develop trauma-informed training for mentors of
18 certain former foster youth which meets certain
19 requirements; authorizing the office to provide
20 certain additional trainings on mentorship of special
21 populations; revising the amount of monthly financial
22 assistance that the office shall provide to
23 participating former foster youth; requiring the
24 office to assign experienced staff to serve as program
25 liaisons for a specified purpose; revising
26 qualifications to serve as a mentor; authorizing the
27 department to offer certain training to mentors in
28 subsequent years; authorizing an employee who serves
29 as a mentor to participate in certain additional
30 trainings; deleting a provision authorizing the offset
31 of a reduction in or loss of certain benefits due to
32 receipt of a Step into Success stipend by an
33 additional stipend payment; amending s. 1004.615,
34 F.S.; requiring the Florida Institute for Child
35 Welfare, in collaboration with the department’s Office
36 of Quality and Office of Child and Family Well-being,
37 to establish a certain best practices program;
38 providing an effective date.
39
40 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
41
42 Section 1. Subsection (91) of section 39.01, Florida
43 Statutes, is amended to read:
44 39.01 Definitions.—When used in this chapter, unless the
45 context otherwise requires:
46 (91) “Visitor” means a person who:
47 (a) Provides care or supervision to a child in the home
,
48
other than a contracted service provider screened pursuant to
49
chapter 435
; or
50 (b) Is 12 years of age or older, other than a child in
51 care, and who will be in the child’s home at least:
52 1.
Ten
Five
consecutive days; or
53 2.
Fourteen
Seven
days or more in 1 month.
54 Section 2. Subsections (2) and (4), paragraphs (b) and (e)
55 of subsection (6), paragraph (b) of subsection (7), paragraph
56 (d) of subsection (10), and subsection (11) of section 409.1455,
57 Florida Statutes, are amended, and paragraph (i) is added to
58 subsection (6) of that section, to read:
59 409.1455 Step into Success Workforce Education and
60 Internship
Pilot
Program for foster youth and former foster
61 youth.—
62 (2) CREATION.—The department shall establish the
3-year
63 Step into Success Workforce Education and Internship
Pilot
64 Program to give eligible foster youth and former foster youth an
65 opportunity to learn and develop essential workforce and
66 professional skills, to transition from the custody of the
67 department to independent living, and to become better prepared
68 for an independent and successful future. The
pilot
program must
69 consist of an independent living professionalism and workforce
70 education component and, for youth who complete that component,
71 an onsite workforce training internship component. In
72 consultation with subject-matter experts and the community-based
73 care lead agencies, the office shall develop and administer the
74
pilot
program for interested foster youth and former foster
75 youth; however, the department may contract with entities that
76 have demonstrable subject-matter expertise in the transition to
77 adulthood for foster youth, workforce training and preparedness,
78 professional skills, and related subjects to collaborate with
79 the office in the development and administration of the
pilot
80 program. The independent living professionalism and workforce
81 education component of the program must culminate in a
82 certificate that allows a former foster youth to participate in
83 the onsite workforce training internship.
84 (4) REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT AND OFFICE.—The
85 department shall establish and the office shall develop and
86 administer the
pilot
program for eligible foster youth and
87 former foster youth.
The office shall
do all of the following
:
88
(a) D
evelop eligible foster youth and former foster youth
89
cohorts within the department’s regions.
90
(b) C
ollaborate with local
c
hambers of
c
ommerce and recruit
91
mentors and organizations within the department’s regions,
92
emphasizing recruitment of mentors and organizations in the
93
following counties:
94
1.
Duval
.
95
2.
Escambia
.
96
3.
Hillsborough
.
97
4. Palm Beach.
98
5.
Polk
.
99
(c) P
rovide eligible former foster youth with a variety of
100
internship placement opportunities
, including by
connecting
101
existing third-party mentorship organizations that focus on
102
former foster youth with eligible former foster youth who have
103
an interest in such organizations’ programs
The
pilot
program
104
must be administered as part of an eligible foster youth’s
105
regular transition planning under s. 39.6035 or as a post
106
transition service for eligible former foster youth
.
The office
107
must begin the professionalism and workforce education component
108
of the program on or before January 1, 2024, and the onsite
109
workforce training internship component of the program on or
110
before July 1, 2024.
111 (6) ONSITE WORKFORCE TRAINING INTERNSHIP COMPONENT
112 REQUIREMENTS.—The office shall do all of the following in
113 connection with the onsite workforce training internship program
114 for eligible former foster youth:
115 (b) Develop
a minimum of 1 hour of
required trauma-informed
116 training for mentors to
satisfy the requirements provided in
117
sub-subparagraph (7)(b)1.e.
Such t
raining must include
118
interactive or experiential components, such as role-playing,
119
scenario discussion, or case studies
.
The office may provide at
120
least 4 additional 1-hour trainings on mentorship of special
121
populations as optional training opportunities,
which
must be
122
asynchronous and accessible to mentor
s
online at
their
123
convenience
,
and
shall
inform participating organizations of
124
these optional training opportunities
teach the skills necessary
125
to engage with participating eligible former foster youth
.
126 (e) Provide a participating former foster youth with
127 financial assistance in the amount of
$1,717
$1,517
monthly and
128 develop a process and schedule for the distribution of payments
129 to former foster youth participating in the component, subject
130 to the availability of funds.
131
(i)
Assign experienced staff
to serve
as program liaisons
132
who are
available for mentors to contact whenever
the mentors
133
need to debrief or have questions concerning a former foster
134
youth
.
135 (7) REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS.—Each
136 organization participating in the onsite workforce training
137 internship component shall:
138 (b) Recruit employees to serve as mentors for former foster
139 youth interning with such organizations.
140 1. To serve as a mentor, an employee must:
141 a. Have worked
in his or her career field or area
for the
142
participating organization
for at least 1 year;
143 b. Have experience relevant to the job and task
144 responsibilities of the intern;
145 c. Sign a monthly hour statement for the intern;
146 d. Allocate at least 1 hour per month to conduct mentor-led
147 performance reviews, to include a review of the intern’s work
148 product, professionalism, time management, communication style,
149 and stress-management strategies; and
150 e. Complete
a minimum of 1 hour of
trauma-informed training
151 to gain
and maintain
skills critical for successfully engaging
152 former foster youth.
The employee must complete a
1-hour
153
training before being matched with a former foster youth
which
154
covers
core topics
,
including, but not limited to:
155
(
I
)
Understanding trauma and its impacts
.
156
(
II
)
Recognizing and responding to trauma-related
157
behaviors.
158
(
III
)
De-escalation strategies and crisis response.
159
(
IV
)
Boundaries and mentor self-care.
160
(
V
)
Communication skills.
161
162
The department may offer a
1-hour training to review topics
163
covered
by the training required under this
sub-sub
paragraph
164
every subsequent year that the employee chooses to serve as a
165
mentor.
166 2. Subject to available funding, an employee who serves as
167 a mentor and receives the required trauma-informed training is
168 eligible for a maximum payment of $1,200 per intern per fiscal
169 year, to be issued as a $100 monthly payment for every month of
170 service as a mentor.
171 3. An employee may serve as a mentor for a maximum of three
172 interns at one time and may not receive more than $3,600 in
173 compensation per fiscal year for serving as a mentor. Any time
174 spent serving as a mentor to an intern under this section counts
175 toward the minimum service required for eligibility for payments
176 pursuant to subparagraph 2. and this subparagraph.
177
4.
An employee who serves as a mentor may participate in
178
additional trainings on the mentorship of special populations as
179
made available by the office
.
180 (10) CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNSHIP
181 COMPONENT.—
182 (d) Stipend money earned pursuant to the internship
183 component may not be considered earned income for purposes of
184 computing eligibility for federal or state benefits, including,
185 but not limited to, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
186 Program, a housing choice assistance voucher program, the
187 Temporary Cash Assistance Program, the Medicaid program, or the
188 school readiness program.
Notwithstanding this paragraph, any
189
reduction in the amount of benefits or loss of benefits due to
190
receipt of the Step into Success stipend may be offset by an
191
additional stipend payment equal to the value of the maximum
192
benefit amount for a single person allowed under the
193
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
194 (11) REPORT.—The department shall include a section on the
195 Step into Success Workforce Education and Internship
Pilot
196 Program in the independent living annual report prepared
197 pursuant to s. 409.1451(6) which includes, but is not limited
198 to, all of the following:
199 (a) Whether the
pilot
program is in compliance with this
200 section, and if not, barriers to compliance.
201 (b) A list of participating organizations and the number of
202 interns.
203 (c) A summary of recruitment efforts to increase the number
204 of participating organizations.
205 (d) A summary of the feedback and surveys received pursuant
206 to paragraph (6)(h) from participating former foster youth,
207 mentors, and others who have participated in the
pilot
program.
208 (e) Recommendations, if any, for actions necessary to
209 improve the quality, effectiveness, and outcomes of the
pilot
210 program.
211 (f) Employment outcomes of former foster youth who
212 participated in the
pilot
program, including employment status
213 after completion of the program, whether he or she is employed
214 by the participating organization in which he or she interned or
215 by another entity, and job description and salary information,
216 if available.
217 Section 3. Present subsections (9), (10), and (11) of
218 section 1004.615, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as
219 subsections (10), (11), and (12), respectively, and a new
220 subsection (9) is added to that section, to read:
221 1004.615 Florida Institute for Child Welfare.—
222
(9)
The institute, in collaboration with the Department of
223
Children and Families
’
Office of Quality and Office of Child and
224
Family Well-being, shall establish a program to identify,
225
describe, and catalogue best practices within the community
226
based care model.
Such
best practices
may
include, but need not
227
be
limited to
,
management practices, administrative structure,
228
internal and external communication, quality assurance, contract
229
management, program development and creation, and child and
230
family outcome monitoring
.
231 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.