Florida SB 372: Public Postsecondary Tuition and Fee Waivers for Sheriff’s Office Employees

Bill Text

372 
Public Postsecondary Tuition and Fee Waivers for Sheriff’s Office Employees 
2025-11-04T08:45:46Z 
Requiring state universities and Florida College System institutions to waive tuition and fees for sheriff’s office employees; providing requirements for the waiver of tuition and fees for sheriff’s office employees; providing requirements for a person to be considered a sheriff’s office employee, etc. 
Original Filed Version 
2026 
S 
2026-07-01T00:00:00Z 
GB 
General Bill 
__ 

 Florida Senate - 2026 SB 372 

 By Senator Trumbull 

 2-00790-26 2026372__ 
 1 A bill to be entitled 
 2 An act relating to public postsecondary tuition and 
 3 fee waivers for sheriff’s office employees; amending 
 4 s. 1009.265, F.S.; requiring state universities and 
 5 Florida College System institutions to waive tuition 
 6 and fees for sheriff’s office employees; providing 
 7 requirements for the waiver of tuition and fees for 
 8 sheriff’s office employees; providing requirements for 
 9 a person to be considered a sheriff’s office employee; 
 10 providing an effective date. 
 11 
 12 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
 13 
 14 Section 1. Subsections (1), (2), and (5) of section 
 15 1009.265, Florida Statutes, are amended to read: 
 16 1009.265 State employee and sheriff’s office employee fee 
 17 waivers.— 
 18 (1) As a benefit to the employer and employees of the state 
 19 and each sheriff’s office in the state, subject to approval by 
 20 an employee’s agency head or sheriff, or the equivalent, each 
 21 state university and Florida College System institution shall 
 22 waive tuition and fees for state employees and sheriff’s office 
 23 employees to enroll for up to 6 credit hours of courses per term 
 24 on a space-available basis. 
 25 (2) The Chief Financial Officer, in cooperation with the 
 26 Florida College System institutions and state universities, 
 27 shall identify and implement ways to ease the administrative 
 28 burden to Florida College System institutions and state 
 29 universities, including, but not limited to, providing easier 
 30 access to verify state or sheriff’s office employment. 
 31 (5) For purposes of this section:, 
 32 (a) Employees of the state include employees of the 
 33 executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state 
 34 government, except for persons employed by a state university. 
 35 (b) Employees of a sheriff’s office include any full-time 
 36 sworn law enforcement officer, correctional officer, or civilian 
 37 employee of the sheriff’s office. 
 38 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.