Florida Senate Bill 266

Florida Senate Bill 266
Florida Legislature
Citation	House Bill 999
Passed by	Florida Senate
Passed	April 28, 2023
Passed by	Florida House of Representatives
Passed	May 3, 2023
Signed by	Ron DeSantis
Signed	May 15, 2023
Commenced	July 1, 2023
Legislative history
First chamber: Florida Senate
Bill title	Higher Education
Introduced by	Erin Grall
Status: In force

This article is part of a series about Ron DeSantis
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Florida Senate Bill 266, also commonly known by its Florida House of Representatives counterpart House Bill 999, is Florida legislation relating to public universities within the state. Under the legislation, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and certain college majors relating to DEI would be eliminated or heavily restricted; the legislation phrases such courses as being based on "unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content". The legislation would prohibit state universities from including DEI and political identity filters within higher education hiring processes, and bans the usage of critical race theory in hiring. The law was filed in the Florida House of Representatives on February 21, 2023, by Republican representative Alex Andrade, while a Florida Senate version was filed seven days later by Republican state senator Erin Grall.^[1][2][3][4] The senate version of the legislation, which was noted as less intense in its requirements than the house version, ultimately passed and was signed by governor Ron DeSantis, concurrently with the similar Florida House Bill 931, on May 15, 2023. SB 266 took effect on July 1, 2023.^[5][6]

The law, which would ban multiple minority race studies as well as some parts of gender studies, is seen by both supporters and opponents as part of the manifestation of DeSantis' wide-reaching educational proposals. Akin to the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act (or the Don't Say Gay Act as described by opposition and protestors), SB 266 and HB 999 also became subject to widespread backlash from students, with protests beginning to be staged at high schools and state universities within days of its initial introduction into the Florida legislature.