New FL Laws Take Effect Oct. 1: What To Know

A number of new laws took effect in Florida on Oct. 1, covering a wide range of issues from animal cruelty to identifying criminal gang members to the sale of nitrous oxide.

Here are some of the new laws on the books, which were approved during the 2026 legislative session:

HB 639: Specialty License Plates

This law requires organizations with specialty license plates to submit timely financial reports to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, or they risk having their plates canceled and funding cut off. It also directs the DHSMV to create specified specialty license plates, updates rules for the Fraternal Order of Police plates, and requires the DHSMV to send annual financial reports to the governor and state legislature.

SB 432: Intoxicating Substances

Also known as “Megan’s Law,” this law bans retail shops licensed for selling tobacco and nicotine products from selling, possessing, and distributing nitrous oxide. It also creates criminal penalties and a new trafficking offense for the possession, distribution, and manufacturing of the horse tranquilizer xylazine.

SB 1332: Career Offender Registration

This law revises the state’s career violent offender registration system standards and requirements. Career offenders are now required to have a specific driver’s license or identification card marking them as such.

Other new requirements for career offenders include initially registering with their local sheriff’s office within 48 hours of moving to a new residence or release from jail. They must report information such as their address, phone number, vehicles and employment.

• Also Read: FL Minimum Wage Increases To $15: What Workers Should Know

HB 1525: Lewd or Lascivious Acts

This law creates a third-degree felony for adults who intentionally expose their sexual organs in a lewd or lascivious manner or perform specified sexual acts while observing a child 16 or younger.

HB 757: School Safety

This law creates tougher penalties for gun violations near Florida schools. It’s now a second-degree felony for those who unlawfully discharge a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school during school hours or official school activities.

It also creates the Active Response and Mitigation of On-Campus Risks (ARMOR) Act, addressing how schools handle threats and violence on campus, and also addresses the transfer of student records.

HB 397: Violations of Pretrial Release Conditions for Violent Crimes

Also known as the Victim Safety in Pretrial Release Act, this law creates a separate criminal offense for those arrested for specific violent crimes who violate pretrial release conditions, such as no-contact orders.

SB 488: Transportation

This law increases the property-damage threshold requiring a driver involved in a crash to notify law enforcement from $500 to $2,000. It also defines the term “REAL ID driver license or identification” and clarifies the legality of decorative license plate holders, which are allowed as long as they don’t block the license plate number or registration sticker.

HB 429: Criteria for Determining Criminal Gang Membership

This law updates what defines what makes a “criminal gang member,” as well as what constitutes “gang-related language.”

For a person to be named a “criminal gang member,” they must meet two or more items from a list of criteria that includes: admitting to it on an online platform on social media, being identified or claimed by a criminal gang as one of its members, adopting the style of dress of a criminal gang or the use of a hand sign identified as used by a criminal gang, or having a tattoo identified as used by a criminal gang.

HB 1293: Fraudulent Entry of Residential Dwellings

This law creates a third-degree felony criminal offense for fraudulent entry upon real property, which is the act of entering into and taking possession of a residential unit by giving a landlord fake information about identity and falsified identity and financial documents, or by impersonating another person.

HB 559: Animal Welfare

This law creates a third-degree felony criminal offence for adults who entice minors into committing acts of animal cruelty or who commit these acts in front of minors. It also establishes harsher penalties for those convicted of animal fighting or baiting crimes and updates registration requirements for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's animal abuse database.