---
type: "Bill"
title: "Child Welfare"
description: "Child Welfare; Transferring existing provisions relating to the central abuse hotline of the Department of Children and Families; providing criminal, civil, and administrative immunity to child protective investigators who report known or suspected animal cruelty; requiring the department to make available specified training for caregivers of children in out-of-home care; requiring the department to develop an alternative plan for providing community-based child welfare services under certain circumstances, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 96"
citation: "Florida SB 96 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["crimes", "criminal procedure and corrections", "motor vehicles", "public officers", "employees", "and records"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2021-170"
primary_sponsors: ["Book"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 48
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-23"
last_action: "2021-07-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/bfe97014-41bb-481d-9487-ce7c1ce4d37c"
source_url: "https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/96/ByCategory"
source_hash: "a07f0883087e3492ff062ef66d6864d9945ec0c15f2793c8ad5374f6a1028103"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-fl"]
---

# Florida SB 96 (2021) — Child Welfare

Child Welfare; Transferring existing provisions relating to the central abuse hotline of the Department of Children and Families; providing criminal, civil, and administrative immunity to child protective investigators who report known or suspected animal cruelty; requiring the department to make available specified training for caregivers of children in out-of-home care; requiring the department to develop an alternative plan for providing community-based child welfare services under certain circumstances, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2021-170.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **S 96 Filed** (filed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/96/BillText/Filed/HTML)
2. **S 96 c1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/96/BillText/c1/HTML)
3. **S 96 c2** (committee substitute) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/96/BillText/c2/HTML)
4. **S 96 e1** (engrossed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/96/BillText/e1/HTML)
5. **S 96 er** (enrolled) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/96/BillText/er/HTML)

## Votes

- Returning Messages — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable with Committee Substitute — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Third Reading — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable with Committee Substitute — **16–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage, Third Reading — **116–0** (pass) · lower
- Favorable — **18–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Book — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-02-23** Filed `filing`
- **2021-02-24** Referred to Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; Appropriations; Rules `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-25** On Committee agenda-- Children, Families, and Elder Affairs, 03/02/21, 4:00 pm, 37 Senate Building
- **2021-03-02** Introduced `introduction`
- **2021-03-02** CS by Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; YEAS 8 NAYS 0
- **2021-03-03** Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
- **2021-03-05** Now in Appropriations
- **2021-03-08** On Committee agenda-- Appropriations, 03/11/21, 11:30 am, 412 Knott Building
- **2021-03-10** CS by Children, Families, and Elder Affairs read 1st time
- **2021-03-11** Favorable by Appropriations; YEAS 18 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-03-12** Now in Rules
- **2021-03-18** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 03/18/21, 9:00 am, 412 Knott Building --Not Considered
- **2021-03-22** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 03/25/21, 9:00 am, 412 Knott Building
- **2021-03-25** CS/CS by- Rules; YEAS 16 NAYS 0
- **2021-03-29** Pending reference review -under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
- **2021-03-29** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2021-03-29** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 04/01/21
- **2021-03-30** CS/CS by Rules read 1st time
- **2021-04-01** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2021-04-01** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2021-04-01** CS passed; YEAS 40 NAYS 0 -SJ 337, 338 `passage`
- **2021-04-01** Immediately certified
- **2021-04-01** In Messages
- **2021-04-26** Bill referred to House Calendar
- **2021-04-26** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (4/27/2021)
- **2021-04-26** Amendment 836519 filed
- **2021-04-26** Amendment 854919 filed
- **2021-04-26** 1st Reading (Committee Substitute 2)
- **2021-04-27** Amendment 620311 filed
- **2021-04-27** Amendment 836519 withdrawn
- **2021-04-27** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2021-04-27** Amendment 620311 adopted
- **2021-04-27** Amendment 854919 adopted as amended
- **2021-04-27** Placed on 3rd reading
- **2021-04-27** Amendment 620311 replaced by engrossed amendment
- **2021-04-27** Amendment 854919 replaced by engrossed amendment
- **2021-04-27** Amendment 198175 engrossed amendment (replaces 854919, 620311)
- **2021-04-27** Added to Third Reading Calendar
- **2021-04-28** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2021-04-28** CS passed as amended; YEAS 116, NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2021-04-28** Message sent to senate
- **2021-04-28** In returning messages
- **2021-04-28** Concurred in 1 amendment(s) (198175)
- **2021-04-28** CS passed as amended; YEAS 39 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2021-04-28** Ordered engrossed, then enrolled
- **2021-06-28** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
- **2021-06-29** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2021-07-06** Chapter No. 2021-170

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/bfe97014-41bb-481d-9487-ce7c1ce4d37c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).