Florida SB 1128 Died in Committee: No New Time-Sharing Deadlines (2026)

Florida SB 1128 (2026) did not become law and created no new deadlines for temporary parenting plans or time-sharing enforcement. The bill died in the Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice on March 13, 2026, before reaching a floor vote. No July 1, 2026 effective date ever triggered because the bill failed. Current time-sharing law is unchanged.

What Actually Happened

Some recent posts and AI summaries claim Florida SB 1128 took effect on July 1, 2026, imposing new 30-day deadlines on temporary parenting plans and time-sharing enforcement. That is not accurate.

According to the Florida Senate's official bill history, SB 1128 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 10, 2026 (an 11-0 vote), then stalled. It died in the Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice on March 13, 2026. A bill that dies in committee is never sent to the full Senate, never sent to the House, and never sent to the Governor. It does not become law, and its drafted effective date is moot.

So if you searched for the new SB 1128 time-sharing deadlines, here is the short version: they do not exist. Florida family courts continue to operate under the same rules that governed time-sharing before the 2026 session.

What SB 1128 Would Have Done

It helps to understand what the bill proposed, because the underlying frustrations it tried to address are real for many Florida parents. As drafted, SB 1128 focused on court procedure, not on rewriting the substance of time-sharing law. Its main features included:

• Priority scheduling. It would have directed courts to give time-sharing disputes priority on crowded family-law calendars.
• Procedural requirements for temporary-relief hearings. It set out how hearings on temporary parental responsibility and time-sharing motions should be handled.
• Stronger language on parenting plans. It changed permissive wording to mandatory wording, requiring (rather than merely authorizing) courts to determine an appropriate parenting plan in certain proceedings.
• Data reporting. It would have required the Office of the State Courts Administrator to publish annual reports on evidentiary hearings by judicial circuit.

Notably, the version that moved through committee was about calendar priority and procedure. It was not the sweeping 30-day statutory deadline that some headlines described. When a source both misstates a bill's status and inflates what it contained, that is a signal to go back to the primary record.

Legal Implications for Florida Divorce Cases

Because SB 1128 failed, nothing changed in how Florida handles temporary parenting plans or time-sharing enforcement. The governing framework remains Chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes.

Several points matter for parents in or near a case:

• Temporary relief still comes from F.S. 61.13. Courts can enter temporary time-sharing and support orders while a divorce or paternity case is pending, but there is no automatic 30-day clock forcing a temporary parenting plan into place.
• Time-sharing is decided by the best-interest factors in F.S. 61.13(3). Those factors were not amended by SB 1128 and were not touched by it.
• The parenting-plan requirement already exists. Under F.S. 61.13(2)(b), any case involving a time-sharing schedule must result in a parenting plan approved by the court. SB 1128 would have tightened some procedural language around that, but the core obligation predates the failed bill.
• Enforcement tools are unchanged. F.S. 61.13(4) already gives courts remedies when a parent refuses to honor a time-sharing schedule, including make-up time-sharing, fees, and other sanctions. No new enforcement deadline was added.

The practical result: a Florida judge in 2026 has the same authority, and the same discretion over scheduling, that the judge had in 2025.

Florida-Specific Analysis

Florida time-sharing law has been unusually active in recent years, which is part of why bills like SB 1128 draw so much attention. The last major substantive change came from SB 1416 in 2023, which reworked alimony and, importantly, created a rebuttable presumption that equal (50/50) time-sharing is in the best interests of the child under F.S. 61.13(2)(c)(2). That presumption is still the law and was not affected by SB 1128.

What SB 1128 tried to fix was a different problem: delay. In many circuits, temporary time-sharing motions sit for weeks or months, and a parent who is being denied contact with a child has few fast options. The bill's priority-scheduling idea was aimed at that pain point. Its failure means the delay problem persists and is handled circuit by circuit, judge by judge, rather than by a statewide deadline.

For an uncontested divorce, none of this is a barrier. When both spouses already agree on a parenting plan and time-sharing schedule, there is no contested temporary-relief fight to schedule in the first place. The parents submit an agreed parenting plan, and the court reviews it against the best-interest standard. That is exactly why cooperative cases move so much faster than litigated ones.

Practical Takeaways

• Do not rely on the SB 1128 deadlines. They were never enacted. Any plan or advice built around a July 1, 2026 SB 1128 rule is built on a bill that died in March 2026.
• Verify legislative claims at the source. The Florida Senate and House sites show each bill's exact status. A bill that reads Died in Committee is not law, regardless of how a headline frames it.
• Temporary time-sharing is still available. If you need a temporary schedule during a pending case, F.S. 61.13 lets the court order one. Speed depends on your circuit's calendar, not on SB 1128.
• Agreement is the fastest path. Because contested scheduling remains slow and discretionary in Florida, spouses who can agree on a parenting plan avoid the delay problem entirely. That is the heart of an uncontested divorce.

If you and your spouse agree on time-sharing and the terms of your divorce, our firm handles the entire uncontested filing for a flat 750-dollar attorney fee, including a compliant Florida parenting plan, a child-support guidelines worksheet, and the UCCJEA affidavit when minor children are involved (court filing fees and notary charges are separate). You can start a conversation with our AI intake assistant on the Ask Victoria page, or read more about how to file an uncontested divorce with children in Jacksonville.

For context on other 2026 legislation that was widely misreported, see our coverage of why Florida's child support cap did not jump to 50,000 dollars and why SB 644 attorney-fee reform died in committee. Both are examples of the same pattern: a proposed bill treated online as if it were already law.

Legal Disclaimer

This article is provided by Antonio G. Jimenez, Esq. (Florida Bar No. 21022) for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. Legislative status can change, and statutes are subject to amendment and judicial interpretation. For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed Florida attorney.