SESSION WATCH
Superseded — its companion passed SENATE · SESSION 2026

No. CS/CS/CS/SB 902

Department of Health
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SPONSOR
Rules; Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services; Health Policy; Garcia
FILED BY
Ileana Garcia — District 36, Republican [search donations]
EFFECTIVE
7/1/2026
COMPANION
CS/CS/HB 1279 — CS/CS/CS/SB 902 was set aside and its companion carried the policy

Filed under Healthcare.

PROVIDED SUMMARY

Department of Health; Revising requirements for department approval of qualified physicians and medical directors of medical marijuana treatment centers; prohibiting medical marijuana treatment center cultivating, processing, or dispensing facilities from being located within a specified distance of parks, child care facilities, or facilities providing early learning services; creating the Neurofibromatosis Disease Grant Program within the department; revising duties of the department in administering the Early Steps Program; authorizing a registered nurse to delegate the administration of certain controlled substances to a home health aide for medically fragile children under certain circumstances, etc.

Full bill text →

Plain English Summary

AI-GENERATED
Bars new marijuana facilities from locating near parks and child care.

New medical marijuana cultivating, processing, and dispensing facilities cannot locate within 500 feet of parks, child care facilities, or early learning facilities, though facilities the department already approved before July 2026 are exempt from these new distance rules.

A registered nurse may now delegate giving a Schedule IV emergency seizure medication to a home health aide caring for a medically fragile child, expanding who can respond during a seizure at home.

The Department of Health must create and, by January 2027, electronically distribute to NICU hospitals a pamphlet on preterm-infant nutrition, and it gains a new competitive grant program funding neurofibromatosis research.

Statutory deadlines and notice requirements for transitioning toddlers with disabilities out of early intervention services are removed, replaced by protocols the department will write itself, and a health practitioner's arrest for murder now triggers emergency license suspension.

KEY PROVISIONS
§ 1 New 500-foot buffer around parks, day cares, and preschools majors. 381.986

AIMedical marijuana cultivating, processing, and dispensing facilities may not locate within 500 feet of a park, licensed child care facility, or early learning facility, extending a buffer that previously applied only to schools.

“may not be located within 500 feet of the real property that comprises a park, a child care facility as defined in s. 402.302” bill text, line 213 →
§ 2 Creates the Neurofibromatosis Disease Grant Program majors. 381.994

AIEstablishes a competitive, peer-reviewed grant program inside the Department of Health funding scientific and clinical research into diagnostics, treatments, and cures for neurofibromatosis, open to any university or research institute in the state.

“There is created within the Department of Health the Neurofibromatosis Disease Grant Program.” bill text, line 280 →
§ 3 Nurses may delegate emergency seizure medication to home health aides majors. 464.0156

AIA registered nurse may now delegate to a home health aide caring for a medically fragile child the administration of a Schedule IV controlled substance prescribed for emergency treatment of an active seizure, a new exception to the general ban on delegating controlled substances.

“a home health aide for medically fragile children as defined in s. 400.462 the administration of a Schedule IV controlled substance” bill text, line 480 →
§ 4 Early Steps transition rules move from statute to agency protocol majors. 391.308

AIInstead of the detailed 90-day notice, opt-out, and conference process previously written into law, the department must now create its own statewide protocols governing how toddlers with disabilities transition out of Early Steps and its Extended Option into school-district or other programs.

“The department shall establish statewide uniform protocols and procedures for transition to a school district program” bill text, line 394 →
§ 5 Adds arrest for murder to offenses triggering license suspension majors. 456.074

AIA health care practitioner arrested for murder, or for attempting, soliciting, or conspiring to commit murder, now falls under the department's existing authority to summarily suspend a practitioner's license upon arrest for listed offenses.

“or similar offenses in another jurisdiction: (d) Section 782.04, relating to murder.” bill text, line 466 →
§ 6 Requires a preterm-infant nutrition pamphlet for NICU parents moderates. 383.14

AIThe department must create an evidence-based pamphlet on preterm infants' nutritional needs, covering breast milk, donor milk, formula risks, and necrotizing enterocolitis, and make it available electronically to NICU hospitals by January 1, 2027.

“Create an evidence-based educational pamphlet on the nutritional needs of preterm infants” bill text, line 49 →
§ 7 Lowers the CBD threshold in the low-THC cannabis definition moderates. 381.986

AIThe definition of "low-THC cannabis" now requires more than 2 percent cannabidiol content by weight, down from more than 10 percent, while explicitly excluding edible products from qualifying regardless of potency.

“which contains 0.8 percent or less of tetrahydrocannabinol and more than 2 percent of cannabidiol, weight for weight” bill text, line 91 →
§ 8 Extends the marriage and family therapy grandfathered-degree deadline moderates. 491.005

AIApplicants may still qualify through the alternate master's-degree pathway for marriage and family therapy licensure if their degree was conferred before September 1, 2032, five years later than the prior cutoff.

“with a degree conferred before September 1, 2032” bill text, line 502 →
TIMELINE
3/12/2026
Laid on Table, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/CS/HB 1279 (Ch....
3/12/2026
Substituted CS/HB 733 -SJ 844
3/12/2026
Read 2nd time -SJ 844
3/11/2026
Retained on Special Order Calendar -SJ 824
3/10/2026
Retained on Special Order Calendar -SJ 747
3/9/2026
Retained on Special Order Calendar -SJ 704
3/6/2026
Retained on Special Order Calendar -SJ 683
3/3/2026
Placed on Special Order Calendar, 03/06/26
2/26/2026
CS/CS/CS by Rules read 1st time
2/26/2026
Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
2/25/2026
Pending reference review -under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
2/24/2026
CS/CS/CS by- Rules; YEAS 23 NAYS 0
2/19/2026
CS/CS by Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services...
2/19/2026
On Committee agenda-- Rules, 02/24/26, 12:00 pm, 412 Knott Building
2/19/2026
Now in Rules
2/19/2026
Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
2/18/2026
CS by Health Policy read 1st time
2/18/2026
CS/CS by Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services;...
2/13/2026
On Committee agenda-- Appropriations Committee on Health and Human...
2/12/2026
Now in Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services
2/12/2026
Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
2/11/2026
CS by Health Policy; YEAS 11 NAYS 0
2/6/2026
On Committee agenda-- Health Policy, 02/11/26, 3:00 pm, 412 Knott Building
1/13/2026
Introduced
1/5/2026
Referred to Health Policy; Appropriations Committee on Health and...
12/15/2025
Filed
20 EARLIER →
STATUTES IT CHANGES
s. 381.986
+327 / −108
s. 381.994
+456 / −0
s. 383.14
+217 / −0
s. 391.308
+69 / −200
s. 391.3081
+44 / −287
s. 456.074
+6 / −0
STAFF ANALYSES
2 MORE →