Although older teens could work unlimited hours, they wouldn’t be able to get treatment for sexually transmitted infections on their own under two bills the Florida House approved Friday.
House lawmakers voted on party lines both to require parental consent for health care providers to treat minors with STIs and to let 16- and 17-year-olds work full-time hours during the school year without their parents’ permission.
The passage of the bills rolling back child labor laws (HB 1225) and exceptions entitling minors to privacy with doctors (HB 1505) prompted ardent debate from Democrats, who raised concerns about children who may be too afraid to report abuse.
Orlando Democratic Rep. Rita Harris put forward a failed amendment allowing minors 16 and older to get treatment for STIs without parental consent.
“There is definitely space for people who are 16 or 17 to be able to make decisions on their own, as it was stated,” Harris said. “They drive a car. We trust them to get behind a car, which could literally kill people and kill themselves.”
It didn’t come up during Friday’s debate, but the legislation co-sponsored by Lake Mary Republican Rep. Rachel Plakon also would remove a “loophole” in Florida law that allows physicians to prescribe birth control to a minor if their medical opinion is that the patient would suffer health hazards otherwise.
Plakon said she wants parents to have greater involvement over their kids’ health decisions than institutions.
“The overwhelming majority of parents want to do the right thing for their children, and we believe that the passing of this legislation is a restoration of parental rights with health care and will foster better communication between parents and their children,” Plakon said.
Parental consent doesn’t apply to minors whose parents are being investigated for a crime against them. The Senate version, SB 1288, has not been scheduled for a floor vote.
Additionally, the change could come at a time when Florida teens are contracting chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis at the highest rates since 2008, according to 2023 data from the Florida Department of Health. Those infections can be cured with antibiotics, but worsen if left untreated.
Seventeen-year-old Adriana Rodas views the bills in juxtaposition to each other. The South Floridian traveled to Tallahassee in March to testify against HB 1505.
“I think saying that [teens] are only old enough to do one thing, and that one thing also happens to benefit the people who want to make this legislation pass, is hypocritical because it just shows to me that they always say they care about children, but then when it comes to having them work longer hours, which deteriorates mental health and can really slow them down academically, they don’t care,” Rodas said in an interview with Florida Phoenix.
Repealing labor laws
Lawmakers then approved the bill loosening working laws for young Floridians, which Democrats decried as a chance for employers to exploit minors, by a vote of 78-30.
Specifically, the bill would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work shifts longer than eight hours on the day before a school day and more than 30 hours in a week while school is in session. The bill loosens restrictions for 14- and 15-year-old home-school students, online students, and those who’ve graduated.
Employers wouldn’t have to give 30-minute breaks to older teens under the bill.
“In Florida, we’re requiring parental rights for many other things, like field trips, school presentations, and even, previously, this bill that just moved, kids would need parental rights for STI treatment,” said Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon.
Florida now allows waivers signed by parents. guardians, or school superintendents for young people to work beyond restrictions spelled out in state law, but Republicans argued that the ultimate permission is granted by parents, and a waiver should not be required.
Rep. Monique Miller, a Republican representing Palm Bay and the bill’s sponsor, said that, because of “a resurgence in apprenticeships and such, we want to reduce barriers to teenagers learning their trade.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office drafted the legislation, Orlando Weekly reported.
The bill makes Florida’s minor labor laws stricter in one aspect. It was amended to prohibit students from working past 10 p.m. on school nights. Florida law now allows students to work until 11:00 p.m.
The Senate version of the bill, SB 918, has not moved since its first committee stop, when it passed on a 5-4 vote. That bill, and the original version of the House bill, would’ve let minors work overnight on school nights.
During its last committee stop, the bill was amended to speed up a preemption established last year, when lawmakers voted to eliminate local living-wage laws, specifically for government contractors, effective in 2026. The 2025 bill revises that preemption to take effect this year.
–Jackie Llanos, Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
Truth be told says
Haha the amerikkkan scheme! Just drop out and work three jobs still can’t purchase a house but may be able to pay rent if you join in with a couple others doing the same lol. Just don’t go homeless or it’s jail for you!
Canary says
So let me get this straight…16 year olds are old enough to drive, work a full time (or more than full time job, and be forced to carry and deliver a child if they get pregnant. But if the doctor discovers while seeing them on their break from their full time job at the appointment that they drove themselves to that they get an STI…gotta call mommy and daddy for permission to give them meds for it. Mmmkay. That makes sense. NOT.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Can’t wait for the “coal mines for kids” after school program Florida will be rolling out next year. I hear they’re paid well in company scrip and taught valuable skills.
Pig Farmer says
I bet those legislators kids aren’t working at all.
The dude says
No treatment for a teen with an STI… but a teen could go into a church and ask to be “saved” without parental permission…
Parents can make the health decisions, but the religious ones are best left to the state…
DaleL says
The most common manner in which any person contracts an STI is through sexual intercourse. It is statutory rape for any adult, who is more than four years older, to have sexual intercourse with a minor. Rather than require parental consent for the needed medical treatment, health care providers should be required to notify law enforcement of possible sexual abuse and/or rape.
whiplash says
So rather than have a child who is afraid of their parent or guardian get private treatment our wonderful legislature would rather that child go untreated! That makes no sense!!
Kennan says
STATE OF IGNORANCE.
tulip says
how on earth do these college educated dumbells think that a student can go to school , work so called full time hours, do his or her homework, and get a decent amount of sleep? That is putting unhealthy pressure upon a student and they will get all kinds of health issues because of it. On top of that a young person can’t get medical treatment for an STI without permission. Well, if a student is that busy with school, homework, a job and getting sleep, he or she wouldn’t have any time left to contact an STI, so that might become a moot problem. I don’t know how many doctors would treat a minor anyway so parental permission would be needed, which I agree with when it concerns a minor.
Deborah Coffey says
And, they call this “family values?” Just let teenagers die, right? Just let pregnant women die. Just let trans kids commit suicide. Just arrest anyone on a sidewalk with an Hispanic last name and deport them or make them live in a tent. Just let homeless people die. Just let poor people die. What crap! Party of Law and Order. Party of Family Values. Party for low taxes. Party for Pro-Life. It’s all become pure BS.