FAC Weekly Update 2026-06-02-What You Need to Know About the New July 1 Laws
Weekly update for June 2, 2026. This is recording number 373
The July 1st Changes Are Coming – What You Need to Know About the New Laws
Dear Members and Advocates,
Next month, one of the more significant expansions of Florida’s sex offender laws in recent years will take effect. On July 1, 2026, CS/CS/CS/SB 212 (formerly HB 45) becomes law, creating new residency restrictions, expanding exclusion zones, increasing law enforcement powers, and imposing additional restrictions on supervised individuals.
This week, we’re taking a deep dive into exactly what changes, who is affected, what the practical consequences may be, and what you should be doing now to prepare. We will also be discussing what FAC is doing in response.
New Places You May Not Be Allowed to Live
If your qualifying offense involved a victim under 16 and you are subject to Florida’s residency restrictions, you already know you cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, park, playground, or daycare. Starting July 1, the list expands to include “public swimming pools”.
A “public swimming pool” can include: City and county pools, community pools in subdivisions and HOAs, apartment complex pools, condominium pools, Trailer park pools, or pools in churches, community centers, or public facilities. “Public Swimming Pools” are not just pools. The definition includes all water recreation facilities such as splash pads.
In practical terms, this means there will be fewer places available to live, particularly in densely populated areas where apartment complexes and subdivisions often have pools.
People who are currently living within the new exclusion zones will not be forced to move, but if you decide to move, you will become subject to the restriction. A big uncertainty remains – what about pre 2004 registrants? Previously, the statute did not apply to people who committed their offenses prior to 2004. Now, the statute says that if you change your residence, you become subject to it.
Enhanced “Proximity Ordinance”
The law also creates new restrictions on knowingly approaching or communicating with anyone under 18 within 500 feet of certain locations that include schools, parks, playgrounds, daycare centers, public swimming pools or places where children were congregating. This does not mean you automatically commit a crime by walking past one of these locations. However, it creates new opportunities for misunderstandings and allegations if law enforcement believes prohibited contact occurred. This is not limited to communicating for a sexual purpose, this includes any communication. As always, avoid situations that could be misinterpreted.
Police Can Arrest First and Ask Questions Later
One of the biggest changes in the law may receive the least publicity. Beginning July 1, law enforcement officers can make a warrantless arrest if they have probable cause to believe someone violated these restrictions. In plain English, that means that prior to July 1, officers would investigate and seek a warrant. Now officers may be able to arrest immediately based on their subjective determination that a violation occurred. Whether that ultimately results in a conviction is a separate question, but the arrest itself can have serious consequences, including never being able to petition for removal from the registry.
Additional Probation Restrictions
For individuals sentenced after July 1 for qualifying offenses, courts may impose additional supervision restrictions related to these newly covered locations. If you are currently on probation, community control, or conditional release, you should discuss any questions with your supervising officer or attorney before assuming existing rules remain unchanged.
What Should You Do Before July 1?
Chances are, if you were in a home that complied with the statute, you won’t be asked to move but make sure you have the telephone number to an attorney who specializes in these matters handy (a list of referrals can be found on our resources page). Regardless, you should still determine whether any “Public Swimming Pools” are located within 1,000 feet of your residence, especially if you live in an apartment complex, trailer park or community that has a pool. If you’re safe and comfortable where you are, now is the time to renew your lease for as long as you can.
You also need to be super vigilant whenever you are within 500 feet of a school, pool, park, etc. One of the biggest problems with this law is that there are no lines on the ground showing you what’s 499 feet away and what’s 501 feet away. Young adults also don’t wear tags that identify them as 17 or 19. Since communicating can include something as benign as ordering a meal at a restaurant, if your server is not clearly over 18, you might be best off changing tables. A best practice is avoiding any communication with someone who appears to be under 18 wherever you go and identifying a few places you frequent to ensure they are far outside the buffer zone. You may need to stop at a different gas station a bit further out, but peace of mind is worth it.
Document everything and make sure your paperwork is handy. Maps of places you frequent, copies of the statute, lease documents, utility bills with your name on it and other records may become important if questions arise. You want to make sure these are all readily available and someone you know has a copy. If you’re arrested and in jail, finding these documents will be a lot more difficult than if you have them ready to go.
Ask questions NOW before problems arise! The worst time to discover a misunderstanding is after an arrest. If you are uncertain whether a location qualifies under the statute, seek clarification from an attorney familiar with Florida registry laws. If you are on probation, ask your officer. If you are off probation, you can contact the FDLE or your local police department and try to get your answer in writing. If they refuse to put it in writing, section 120.565 of Florida’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA) authorizes any “substantially affected person” to request an agency’s opinion on how a statute, rule, or order applies in particular circumstances. Reference the APA in your request and be sure to save a copy of your request and their response. We have put a fill-in-the-blank template request on our website, which you can use.
What is FAC doing now?
Short answer: Suing. FAC has retained the law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP to bring a constitutional legal challenge. This challenge will be led by Michael Kimberly, one of the nation’s premier appellate advocates. He has extensive experience litigating constitutional challenges to state laws and regulations, he has built a reputation for handling complex cases involving fundamental constitutional rights. Mr. Kimberly is a Yale Law School graduate and longtime professor of Supreme Court advocacy at Yale.
Every victory FAC has achieved has been made possible by members and supporters who stepped up when it mattered most, and NOW is when it matters most. As a non-profit supported solely on member donations, one of the most uncomfortable things we have to do is ask for donations, especially from a population that doesn’t have much to give. But if you want to help create meaningful change, you need to pitch in. No donation is too small, and every dollar helps fund the fight. Until the case is resolved, 100% of all donations made to our General Legal Fund will go towards this case and you can donate here: https://floridaactioncommittee.org/donations/ (be sure to select ‘General Legal Fund’).
The challenge ahead is significant, but so is our determination. Together we can make it happen!
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
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My charge is from 1994. Will this change anything for me at all?
I would refer you to the statute but in my view the only thing is the proximity part.
Tearful
This entire scheme is a trap. They add and pile more and more burdens on us to the point we are doomed to fail. Unless you stay in the house forever, we are always one step away from getting arrested. (That is at least how I feel sometimes)
I have been detained over 20 times since on the registry. Every single time, FDLE took my side, but each time I almost peed my pants thinking I was going back to prison. Walking while an offender, driving while and offender, riding a bike while and offender and many more have happened to me.
And don’t even get me started when you get pulled over for nonsense, you sit on the side of the road for hours, waiting for FDLE to clear you. (I guess it is better than being arrested and while we are detained, they are leaving someone else alone)
I barely leave the house anymore because of all this nonsense. Wait until all the surveillance cameras start going up everywhere. I will start dressing up like Misses Doubtfire to disguise myself.
I really don’t go to many places. I work from home except Wednesdays. I go to church, the gym, My dad’s Doctor appointments and my daughters house that is about it. The store also but to my knowledge there is nothing within 500 feet, but either way I always go the older cashiers. My only place of issue is the Gym. It has a pool and I think the age limit for membership is 16. So my plan is not talk to anyone other than my regulars.
And the two Chick fil A’s I go to neither of them has a Play area that I know of and I only use the drive thru.
Tearful
Since there are no signs posted where we can and cannot go, I just go about my business and pretend I am not on the registry. The way the World is going, none of this might not matter at some point in a biblical perspective if you get my drift.
Hotels are not mentioned in the FAC article related to “public pools.” Is that an accidental omission? I have been gainfully employed in hotels since 2019. Front desk staff. No issues.
Also, the paragraph quoted below from the FAC article above is a bit unclear as to whether all the new restrictions apply only to “supervised individuals.” Am I reading this correctly?
“…new residency restrictions, expanding exclusion zones, increasing law enforcement powers, and imposing additional restrictions on supervised individuals.”
Can FAC please advise?
I work in hotels too dude, I maintenance several of them. It is my understanding that the original bill included hotels but through FAC’s fighting the legislation, hotels were eventually omitted.
No End, I believe you are correct.
775.215 Residency restriction for persons convicted of certain sex
offenses.—
(1) As used in this section, the term:
(d) “Public swimming pool” means a structure that is located either
indoors or outdoors and used for recreational bathing or swimming by
humans. The term includes a conventional pool, spa-type pool, wading pool,
special purpose pool, spray pool, splash pad, or other water recreation
attraction, to which admission may be gained with or without payment of a
fee, regardless of whether entry to the swimming pool is limited by a gate or
other method of controlling access. The term includes swimming pools
operated by or serving subdivisions, apartments, condominiums, mobile
1
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Ch. 2026-17
LAWS OF FLORIDA
Ch. 2026-17
home parks, or townhouses, or any pool operated by a governmental entity
which is held open to the public. The term does not include a swimming pool
at a private single-family residence, hotel, motel, or recreational vehicle
park, or a swimming pool where the operator prohibits the use of such pool
by persons younger than 18 years of age
That is the definition of Swimming pools. Which after reading the L&P statute, (4)(a) It is unlawful for a person described in subsection (1) to knowingly
approach, contact, or communicate with, or approach with the intent to
contact or communicate with a person younger than child under 18 years of
age in any public park building or on real property comprising any public
3
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Ch. 2026-17
LAWS OF FLORIDA
Ch. 2026-17
park, or playground, or public swimming pool.
If the public swimming pool definition is the same as above. Then it would appear that motels, hotels, RV parks would be excluded as well. Still wondering about Gyms with pools.
FAC any thoughts.
tearfuleagle
I been taking vacations near the beaches throught out the year. They have pools at the resorts I usually stay at temporarily. So thats fine. I take it. I can still stay there. My offense was committed June of 2004.
Please Please Please do not go off what I say. I am in the same boat as everyone else when it comes to the Proximity part of this and just as much in the “I dont really know” mentality. I am only looking at the statute and what I believe it means and that and $5.00 will not even get you a cup of coffee at starbucks.
It is just my understanding. FAC and their attorneys are the experts here.
Thank you for that clarification, citing the code itself. At least for now, my hospitality career will continue.
Thank you for that clarification! I’m hoping that my hospitality career will continue! I love the work.
With the new requirements imposed on those prior to 2004, does this constitute a NEW ex-post facto?
Allen
We all agree that they will keep piling on more and more restrictions on us (Some retro-active and some not) until the courts say enough is enough. Most judges do not want to be known as soft on crime and maybe not have a job in the future for seeming weak. However, the supreme court judges, I believe are for life and have less chance of being booted out because of a decision, but they still seem to rarely rule in our favor.
And even after all of that, law makers turn around and just come up with some other crazy law to punish us and dare us to challenge it. They know lawsuits are not free, so FAC and others have to pick and choose their battles financially. Pretty sad we got to be the group of offenders that the majority of the population have no sympathy at all for us and some even laugh when we are killed by vigilantes.
What I find funny as a constitutionalist is the warrantless arrests just based on an officers judgment. I feel like this is being tested on the lowest rung of people as it were to slowly move to more people. Especially with the violent offender lists they are trying to push.
Its the boiling frog theory in real time.
PFR
Similiar to what they did with the migrants they sent to the camps in south Florida. Most were not charged for anything but were locked up in terrible conditions in the heat, no lawyers, bad food and other bad situations. It is one thing to deport someone, and another to just throw people in a cage like animals.
Agreed!
I’m on wear tv website out of pensacola debating people about the 1000 ft swimming pool law. The news outlet has a segment on it.
Maybe its my post-conviction trauma hitting me (again) but I can only think of a nightmare scenario where I get arrested for placing an order at Chic-Fil-A because there’s a playground in the restaurant and the cashiers are usually high school kids. Or perhaps worse, I fill my car up at WaWa that’s next to a local church that has a playground on it and there are kids in the store. LE looks for arrests nowadays (we see that time and time again in many Florida counties) without a care in the world whether the arrest is actually lawful.