Bill Amendment: FL S0708 | 2016 | Regular Session

NOTE: For additional amemendments please see the Bill Drafting List

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Bill Title: Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys

Status: 2016-03-31 - Chapter No. 2016-163 [S0708 Detail]

Download: Florida-2016-S0708-Senate_Committee_Amendment_422720.html

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       Florida Senate - 2016                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for SB 708
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì422720pÎ422720                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
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       Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and
       Economic Development (Thompson) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. (1)(a) Any historical resource, record, archive,
    6  artifact, public research, or medical record that was recovered
    7  from the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys by the University of
    8  South Florida shall remain in the custody of the university for
    9  archival and preservation until the Department of State requests
   10  custody of such resource, record, archive, artifact, public
   11  research, or medical record.
   12         (b) Any human remains exhumed from the Arthur G. Dozier
   13  School for Boys by the University of South Florida shall remain
   14  in the custody of the university for identification purposes
   15  until the remains are returned to the next of kin or reburied
   16  pursuant to this act.
   17         (2)(a) The Department of State shall contract with the
   18  University of South Florida for the identification and location
   19  of eligible next of kin for such children and the update of
   20  information on associated artifacts and materials.
   21         (b) No later than July 1, 2016, the University of South
   22  Florida must provide the Department of State with contact
   23  information for the next of kin for each set of human remains
   24  which has been returned to a next to kin.
   25         (c) For any identification of next of kin occurring on or
   26  after July 1, 2016, the University of South Florida must provide
   27  location information of the next of kin to the Department of
   28  State at least 5 days before returning the human remains to the
   29  next of kin.
   30         (d) Beginning July 1, 2016, the Department of State must
   31  notify the next of kin responsible for a set of human remains
   32  about the payment or reimbursement provisions under subsection
   33  (3). Such notification must be made within 15 business days
   34  after the department’s receipt of the location information of
   35  the next of kin.
   36         (3) The Department of State shall reimburse the next of kin
   37  or pay directly to the provider up to $7,500 for funeral,
   38  reinterment, and grave marker expenses for each child whose body
   39  was buried at and exhumed, or otherwise recovered, from the
   40  Dozier School for Boys.
   41         (a) In order to receive reimbursement, the next of kin must
   42  submit to the department receipts for, or documentation of,
   43  expenses. Reimbursement shall be made pursuant to s. 215.422,
   44  Florida Statutes.
   45         (b) If expenses are to be paid directly to the provider,
   46  the funeral home or other similar entity must submit an invoice
   47  to the department for the cost of the child’s funeral,
   48  reinterment, and grave marker expenses. Payment shall be made
   49  pursuant to s. 215.422, Florida Statutes.
   50         (c) A charitable donation made toward funeral, reinterment,
   51  and grave marker expenses is not eligible for reimbursement.
   52         (4) By February 1, 2018, the Department of State shall
   53  submit a report to the Governor and Cabinet, the President of
   54  the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives
   55  regarding any payments and reimbursements made pursuant to this
   56  section.
   57         (5) The department may adopt rules necessary to administer
   58  this section.
   59         Section 2. (1) A task force is established adjunct to the
   60  Department of State to advise the department and, except as
   61  otherwise provided in this section, shall operate consistent
   62  with s. 20.052, Florida Statutes. The task force shall be known
   63  as the “Dozier Task Force.” The Department of State shall
   64  provide administrative and staff support services relating to
   65  the functions of the task force.
   66         (2)(a) The task force shall consist of the following
   67  members:
   68         1. The Secretary of State, or his or her designee, who
   69  shall serve as the chair.
   70         2. One person appointed by the President of the Florida
   71  State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement
   72  of Colored People.
   73         3. One representative of the Florida Council of Churches,
   74  appointed by the executive director of the council.
   75         4. A next of kin of a deceased ward buried at the Dozier
   76  School for Boys appointed by the Attorney General.
   77         5. One representative who promotes the welfare of people
   78  who are former wards of the Dozier School for Boys appointed by
   79  the Chief Financial Officer.
   80         6. One person appointed by the President of the Senate.
   81         7. One person appointed by the Speaker of the House of
   82  Representatives.
   83         8. One person appointed by the Jackson County Board of
   84  County Commissioners.
   85         (b) By October 1, 2016, the task force shall submit its
   86  recommendations to the Department of State regarding the
   87  creation and maintenance of a memorial and the location of a
   88  site for the reinterment of unidentified or unclaimed remains.
   89  The recommendations shall also be submitted to the Governor and
   90  Cabinet, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House
   91  of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the Senate, and the
   92  Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.
   93         (3) This section is repealed December 31, 2016.
   94         Section 3. For the 2016-2017 fiscal year, the sum of
   95  $500,000 in nonrecurring funds is appropriated from the General
   96  Revenue Fund to the Department of State for the purpose of
   97  implementing this act. Funds remaining unexpended or
   98  unencumbered from this appropriation as of July 1, 2017, shall
   99  revert and be reappropriated for the same purpose in the 2017
  100  2018 fiscal year.
  101         Section 4. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.
  102  
  103  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  104  And the title is amended as follows:
  105         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  106  and insert:
  107                        A bill to be entitled                      
  108         An act relating to the Arthur G. Dozier School for
  109         Boys; requiring certain historical resources, records,
  110         archives, artifacts, researches, medical records, and
  111         human remains to remain in the custody of the
  112         University of South Florida; providing exceptions;
  113         requiring the Department of State to contract with the
  114         university for the identification and location of
  115         eligible next of kin of certain children; requiring
  116         the department to notify the next of kin of certain
  117         payment or reimbursement provisions; requiring the
  118         department to reimburse the next of kin of children
  119         whose bodies are buried and exhumed at the Dozier
  120         School or to pay directly to a provider for the costs
  121         associated with funeral services, reinterment, and
  122         grave marker expenses; providing a process for
  123         reimbursement or payment by the department; providing
  124         that a charitable donation made toward funeral,
  125         reinterment, and grave marker expenses is not eligible
  126         for reimbursement; requiring the department to submit
  127         a report; establishing a task force to make
  128         recommendations regarding a memorial and a location of
  129         a site for the reinterment of unidentified or
  130         unclaimed remains; providing membership of the task
  131         force; requiring the task force to submit its
  132         recommendation to the department by a certain date;
  133         requiring the task force to submit its recommendations
  134         to the Governor and Cabinet and to the Legislature;
  135         authorizing the department to adopt rules; providing
  136         appropriations; providing an effective date.
  137  
  138         WHEREAS, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, or the
  139  Dozier School for Boys, operated from 1900 until it was closed
  140  in 2011 after allegations of abuse were confirmed in separate
  141  investigations by the Department of Law Enforcement in 2010 and
  142  the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of
  143  Justice in 2011, and
  144         WHEREAS, official records indicated that 31 graves had been
  145  dug at the facility between 1914 and 1952, and
  146         WHEREAS, a forensic investigation by the University of
  147  South Florida found that there are no records of where children
  148  who died at the Dozier School for Boys are buried and that
  149  families were often notified after the child was buried or
  150  denied access to their remains at the time of burial, and
  151         WHEREAS, exhumations of bodies began in August 2013, and
  152  the excavations yielded 55 burial sites, 24 more sites than
  153  reported in official records, and
  154         WHEREAS, one of the bodies exhumed during the forensic
  155  investigation was of a child reported missing since 1940, and
  156         WHEREAS, nearly 100 deaths were recorded at the school and
  157  51 sets of remains were exhumed from burials, and additional
  158  victims of a fatal fire in 1914 are still buried with the fire
  159  debris on site, and
  160         WHEREAS, many families of children whose bodies have been
  161  exhumed lack the resources to properly reinter those children at
  162  a suitable location, and
  163         WHEREAS, the State of Florida recognizes an obligation to
  164  help the families of children formerly buried at the Dozier
  165  School for Boys reinter the bodies of those children, NOW,
  166  THEREFORE,