HB 503 Florida House · 2026 Regular Session

Drowning Prevention Education

Summary

Drowning Prevention Education; Requires DOH to develop educational materials on drowning prevention safety measures & safe bathing practices for specified purposes; provides requirements for such materials; requires hospitals, birth centers, & home birth providers to provide educational materials to new parents & caregivers as part of their postpartum education & care; requires childbirth educators to provide informational materials to parents or caregivers receiving childbirth education from them.

Issues: ✓ Healthcare

Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Nov 2025

Committee Review

Mar 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Nov 20, 2025 Last action Mar 13, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

H 503 Filed → H 503 c1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was converted from a filed version to a committee amendment version, which involved significant reorganization of the statutory text. The primary substantive change is the removal of a requirement for hospitals to provide educational materials on 'safe sleep practices' and 'Sudden Unexpected Infant Death' to parents, while retaining the new drowning prevention education requirements.

Scope change

The bill's scope regarding hospital postpartum education was narrowed by removing specific mandates for safe sleep and SIDS education, though drowning prevention education remains required.

REQUIREMENT

Removed the requirement for hospitals to include information on safe sleep practices and the possible causes of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death in their postpartum education.

TECHNICAL

Reorganized the bill structure from four sections to three sections and updated page references to reflect the committee amendment format.

Consolidated the text of Section 3 (amending s. 395.1053) to remove the deleted safe sleep and SIDS content while keeping the drowning prevention mandate.

Floor votes · House Mar 4, 2026

How they voted

109–1

Passed · 8 other

Total votes 118

Mar 4, 2026

D Democratic34

32 Yea 2

94% Yea

R Republican84

77 Yea 1 Nay 6

91% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 4, 2026

Committee

Referred to Rules

upper

Mar 4, 2026

Lower · Passed

CS passed; YEAS 108, NAYS 1

lower

Feb 25, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Health & Human Services Committee

lower

Feb 24, 2026

Lower · Passed

Favorable by Health & Human Services Committee

lower

Feb 20, 2026

Lower · Passed

Added to Health & Human Services Committee agenda

lower

Feb 16, 2026

Lower · Passed

Now in Health & Human Services Committee

lower

Feb 16, 2026

Committee

Referred to Health & Human Services Committee

lower

Feb 12, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Health Care Facilities & Systems Subcommittee

lower

Feb 12, 2026

Lower · Passed

Favorable with CS by Health Care Facilities & Systems Subcommittee

lower

Feb 10, 2026

Lower · Passed

PCS added to Health Care Facilities & Systems Subcommittee agenda

lower

Nov 24, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in Health Care Facilities & Systems Subcommittee

lower

Nov 24, 2025

Committee

Referred to Health & Human Services Committee

lower

Nov 24, 2025

Committee

Referred to Health Care Budget Subcommittee

lower

Nov 24, 2025

Committee

Referred to Health Care Facilities & Systems Subcommittee

lower

2 primary · 13 co-sponsors