Fla. Admin. Code Ann. R. 63F-15.001 - Compliance with Safety in Private Spaces Act

(1) Definitions. For purposes of this rule section the following definitions apply:

(a) Changing Facility - A room in which two or more persons may be in a state of undress in the presence of others, including, but not limited to, a dressing room, locker room, or shower room.

(b) Facility - Any secure detention center or residential commitment facility serving youth placed in department custody.

(c) Female - A person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing eggs.

(d) Male - A person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.

(e) Restroom - A room that includes one or more toilets or urinals and is sex-specific. This term does not include a unisex restroom.

(f) Unisex changing facility - A room intended for a single occupant or a family in which one or more persons may be in a state of undress, including, but not limited to, a dressing room, fitting room, locker room, changing room, or shower room that is enclosed by floor-to-ceiling walls and accessed by a full door with a secure lock that prevents another individual from entering while the changing facility is in use.

(g) Unisex Restroom - A room that includes one or more toilets or urinals and that is intended for a single occupant or a family, is enclosed by floor-to-ceiling walls, and is accessed by a full door with a secure lock that prevents another individual from entering while the room is in use.

(2) Restrooms.

(a) Secure detention centers must, at a minimum, have a restroom designated for exclusive use by females and a separate restroom designated for exclusive use by males. Though not required, such facilities may also have a unisex restroom.

(b) Residential commitment facilities must, at a minimum, have:

1. A restroom designated for exclusive use by females and a restroom designated for exclusive use by males; or

2. A unisex restroom.

(3) Changing Facilities. A secure detention center or residential commitment facility that maintains a changing facility must, at a minimum, have a changing facility designated for exclusive use by females and a separate changing facility designated for exclusive use by males. Alternatively, the detention center or residential commitment facility may maintain a unisex changing facility.

(4) Incidents of Noncompliance.

(a) A detention center or residential commitment facility must ensure that their behavior management system is capable of disciplining a youth who willfully enters a restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex, and who refuses to depart when asked to do so by staff.

(b) A detention center or residential commitment facility must have a disciplinary procedure in place to address staff who willfully enter a restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex, and who refuse to depart when asked to do so by staff.

(c) This rule section does not apply, and it is not an incidence of noncompliance, when the individual is or has been under the treatment of a physician who, in his or her good faith clinical judgment, performs procedures upon or provides therapies for a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sexual development, including:

1. External biological sex characteristics that are unresolvedly ambiguous.

2. A disorder of sexual development in which the physician has determined through genetic or biochemical testing that the patient does not have a normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action for a male or a female.

(5) Each secure detention center and residential commitment facility shall document compliance with this rule and the relevant provisions of section 553.865, F.S., using the Safety in Private Spaces Attestation (OPA-1, August 2023) which is incorporated by reference into this rule and is available at https://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-16159. A new facility must submit the required attestation within 1 year of being established. A facility established prior to July 1, 2023, must submit an attestation no later than April 1, 2024.

Notes

Fla. Admin. Code Ann. R. 63F-15.001

Rulemaking Authority 985.64, 553.865(16) FS. Law Implemented 553.865 FS.

Adopted by Florida Register Volume 49, Number 239, December 12, 2023 effective 12/25/2023.

New 12-25-23.