---
type: "Bill"
title: "Department of Elderly Affairs"
description: "Department of Elderly Affairs; Revising the list of individuals who may not be appointed as ombudsmen under the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program; deleting an exemption from level 2 background screening requirements for certain individuals; requiring the office to notify complainants within a specified timeframe after determining that a complaint against a professional guardian is not legally sufficient; requiring the office to provide a certain written statement to the complainant and the professional guardian within a specified timeframe after completing an investigation; requiring clerks of the court to report to the office within a specified timeframe after the court imposes any sanctions on a professional guardian, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2023"
identifier: "SB 1396"
citation: "Florida SB 1396 (2023)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["(passed)", "domestic relations"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2023-259"
primary_sponsors: ["Garcia"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 27
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2023-03-01"
last_action: "2023-06-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/84027bc7-d8a4-4b3d-9703-b7745ab75259"
source_url: "https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1396/ByCategory"
source_hash: "8b91bce0199bd9315c8f94d9e5e1628d01b492bcd4d7d166981c10f32adbfa9b"
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 1396 (2023) — Department of Elderly Affairs

Department of Elderly Affairs; Revising the list of individuals who may not be appointed as ombudsmen under the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program; deleting an exemption from level 2 background screening requirements for certain individuals; requiring the office to notify complainants within a specified timeframe after determining that a complaint against a professional guardian is not legally sufficient; requiring the office to provide a certain written statement to the complainant and the professional guardian within a specified timeframe after completing an investigation; requiring clerks of the court to report to the office within a specified timeframe after the court imposes any sanctions on a professional guardian, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2023-259.

## Version chain

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

1. **S 1396 Filed** (filed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1396/BillText/Filed/HTML)
2. **S 1396 er** (enrolled) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1396/BillText/er/HTML)

## Votes

- Favorable — **17–0** (pass) · upper
- Third Reading — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage, Third Reading — **110–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Garcia — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-03-01** Filed `filing`
- **2023-03-09** Referred to Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; Rules `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-14** Introduced `introduction`
- **2023-03-15** On Committee agenda-- Children, Families, and Elder Affairs, 03/20/23, 12:30 pm, 37 Senate Building
- **2023-03-20** Favorable by Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; YEAS 7 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-03-20** Now in Rules
- **2023-03-31** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 04/05/23, 11:00 am, 412 Knott Building
- **2023-04-05** Favorable by- Rules; YEAS 17 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-04-05** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2023-04-05** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 04/12/23
- **2023-04-12** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2023-04-12** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2023-04-12** Passed; YEAS 40 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2023-04-12** Immediately certified
- **2023-04-12** In Messages
- **2023-04-25** Bill referred to House Calendar
- **2023-04-25** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (4/28/2023)
- **2023-04-25** 1st Reading (Original Filed Version) `filing, reading-1`
- **2023-04-28** Substituted for CS/HB 1411
- **2023-04-28** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2023-04-28** Added to Third Reading Calendar
- **2023-04-28** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2023-04-28** Passed; YEAS 110, NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2023-04-28** Ordered enrolled `enrolled`
- **2023-06-12** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2023-06-19** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2023-06-20** Chapter No. 2023-259

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/84027bc7-d8a4-4b3d-9703-b7745ab75259`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).