Overview
- HB 757, promulgated May 15 after renewed focus from a 2025 Florida State University shooting, expands the armed Guardian Program to public colleges and universities.
- County sheriffs will handle selection, psychological screening, drug testing, at least 144 hours of training, and yearly recertification for campus guardians.
- Public institutions must create threat-assessment teams, adopt active-attacker plans, run annual security risk reviews, upgrade alert systems, and set family reunification procedures, which will change safety drills and emergency messages for students.
- The law adds a new crime that makes firing a gun within 1,000 feet of any school a second-degree felony.
- Five laws in the six-bill package, including HB 757, take effect July 1, and public colleges now decide whether to join the program and begin compliance steps.