In-state Florida travel for Florida registrants (including out-of-state)

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

Fla. Stat. 2019; Fla. Stat. §§775.21, 775.215; Fla. Stat. §§943.043 through 943.0435; Fla. Stat. §§944.606 through 944.607;  Fla. Stat. §947.1405, §985.481

AWA Compliant

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

“Residence” means either (1) a place where one spends 3 or more consecutive days, (2) a place where one spends 3 or more aggregate days in a calendar year, or (3) a county in which one is present for 3 or more aggregate days in a calendar year.  In all cases, 3rd day triggers registry obligation.

Registrants must appear to register with law enforcement w/in 48 hours of establishing a residence, and must appear to provide any updates within 48 hours.

Transient registrants update every 30 days.

NOTE: "Day" will now be defined in Florida's SOR law to mean "any part of a day" except that your day of arrival doesn't count. Updated 3/2024.

Registrants must also appear to register with the driver’s license office of the FL DMV within 48 hours of registration to obtain a driver’s license or ID card labeled either “SEXUAL PREDATOR” or “943.0435, F.S.”

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residence restriction:  May not reside within 1,000 ft. of school, child care facility, park, or playground under certain circumstances. §775.215.  NOTE: Individual cities and counties often have additional more burdensome requirements upwards of 3000 feet.

Presence restriction: Registrants with conviction involving a minor cannot be within 300 feet “of place where children are congregating,” and face restrictions on ability to be present in schools and parks.  NOTE: Individual cities and counties often have additional more burdensome requirements.  Fla. Stat. §856.022

Visiting Registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED.

Duration & updates:

Lifetime.  Petition: 25 years.  “Predators” and certain others update quarterly.  All others update every 6 months

Florida’s restrictions on registrants are particularly onerous and should be carefully consulted before visiting the state.

Disney World won't let you in. 

NOTE! This travel info is only for people already registered in Florida! All others should avoid visiting this cruel state!

Every major national or state registrant advocacy group – including NARSOL, ACSOL, Florida Action Committee (FAC) – strongly recommends that you avoid visiting Florida if at all possible.  To this I add my own voice.  Florida’s registry is lifetime for all offenses, no matter how minor.  Florida has no tiered registry – only “sex offenders” and “sexual predators.”  Furthermore, Florida is one of about 15 states where there is no procedure for removal from the registry upon returning to your home state.  

Because of that, of the about 75,000 Florida registrants less than 30,000 actually live in Florida (not counting incarcerated registrants)! All the rest – which is to say the majority of Florida registrants – DO NOT actually live in Florida. Since I moved my primary residence to Iowa, I am now included in that number.

However … as with any other state, once you are registered here the deed is done and you are “free” to come and go without suffering any further consequences – as long as you are careful not to run afoul of any of Florida’s many cruel and clearly unconstitutional registration laws.  But you need to know the rules before you start.

“Permanent residence,” “temporary residence,” and “transient residence”

First I want to discuss some of Florida’s “residence” rules. Florida statutes define three kinds of residences:

“Permanent Residence” means “a place where the person abides, lodges, or resides for 3 or more consecutive days.” F.S. 775.21(2)(k).

“Temporary residence” means “a place where the person abides, lodges, or resides, including, but not limited to, vacation, business, or personal travel destinations in or out of this state, for a period of 3 or more days in the aggregate during any calendar year and which is not the person’s permanent address.” F.S. 775.21(2)(n).

“Transient residence” means “a county where a person lives, remains, or is located for a period of 3 or more days in the aggregate during a calendar year and which is not the person’s permanent or temporary address.” F.S. 775.21(2)(n).

In all cases you should always assume that the third day triggers registry obligation, including partial days.  Failure to register any permanent, temporary or transient address is a felony, subject to prison time if caught. Now you see how important it is to understand each of these defined terms and how it may apply to you as a Florida registrant.

First I want to dispense with the “transient residence.” I have met people who mistakenly assume that because this type of residence includes the word “transient” in the definition it must apply to homeless people, a.k.a. “transients.” 

But no. Any otherwise homeless registrant living in their car parked at a truck stop, or in a specific homeless camp in the woods, or under a specific railroad tunnel, for a period of at least three consecutive days, will need to report that location to the local sheriff’s department not as a “transient residence” but as their “permanent residence.”

If the cops show up and kick that homeless registrant out of that truck stop, or homeless camp, or railroad tunnel, they have to find someplace else to be and report that new location to the sheriff’s department within 48 hours of establishing their new “permanent residence” or else it’s a felony and back to prison they go. The stupidity of that is mind-boggling but of course, yes it has happened here in our lovely state.

However, the Orlando Museum of Art and Orlando Science Center will let you in,

even though they are both located within Loch Haven Park

 “Permanent residences” vs “temporary residences”

Now let’s turn to the difference between a “permanent residence” and a “temporary residence” since I have had recent personal experience with these two defined terms. When I bought a summer home in Iowa I had to decide which location to call my “permanent residence” (Iowa uses the term “principle residence”) and which to call my seasonal or vacation residence (Iowa doesn’t have any separately defined term for this).

I chose Iowa to be my “principle residence” where I now reside more than 50% of each calendar year.  That meant that in Florida I had to report my Iowa address as my “permanent residence”.  At the same time I changed my Florida address to a “temporary residence.” You will note that Florida’s “temporary residence” definition above includes the words “vacation” and “personal travel destinations in or out of this state.” In my case I actually have three different temporary addresses. Florida allows you to have as many “temporary residences” as you want. 

In Florida, “permanent residences” and “temporary residences” must all meet our state and local governments’ cruel and onerous distance and separation requirements. However, if you own your home(s) and maintain them continuously as a “permanent residence” or “temporary residence” you are “grandfathered in” in case a church down the street opens a daycare center or installs a playground while you’re at your out of town. That’s why it was so important to me to change my Florida “permanent address” to a “temporary residence,” so I’d always know I could come back to it seasonally. Local sheriff’s departments policies on rentals may vary, but many will grandfather in renters as long as they keep that address current.

Here’s another tip for in-state Florida registrants, courtesy of my probation officer when I told her I was house-shopping to escape the sex offender dump I was forced to live in when I left prison. She said, “Be sure to get the address checked out at the sheriff’s department before you even make an offer on the house. And if they approve it, register it as a ‘temporary residence’ right away, before you are even under contract. Then once you own it, switch it over to a ‘permanent residence.’ If the purchase doesn’t go through you can always delete that house from your registry and move on to the next one. I’d hate to see you wait to register a house until you are ready to move in, only to discover that someone has opened a home day care within 1000 feet. I’ve seen that happen, and it’s a terrible thing.”

“Open-ended” temporary addresses

By policy, Florida has always allowed two kinds of “temporary residences.” One is your destination when you are traveling (whether in-state or out of state), where you will reside for a specific temporary period of time. In my experience, when I report that type of travel destination 48 hours before leaving on a cross-country road trip, that “temporary residence” will only appear on Florida’s public registry during the specific time period I have reported to the sheriff that I will be there. After that it disappears from cyberspace.

The second kind of temporary residence is the so-called “open-ended temporary residence.” That kind stays on your sheet on the public registry permanently with no end date, which means you can come and go as you please as long as you “check in” each time, and that residence remains grandfathered in in case anything adverse opens down the street. 

This could be important to you as a Florida registrant if, for example, you have an ailing relative whom you need to visit periodically. Once you find someplace that the local sheriff’s department will approve as a “temporary residence” (maybe that relative’s house, maybe a nearby motel) you will want to grandfather that place in for yourself, so be sure to register it as an “open-ended temporary residence.”

A couple of years ago I bought a seasonal home near Tallahassee to be closer to my family who had moved there. Acting on my former P.O.’s advice I reported it as my third “open-ended temporary address” before I even owned it. Furthermore it was tenant occupied at the time of purchase and their lease wouldn’t run out until the following summer while I was at my “permanent residence” in Iowa – meaning that it would be well over a year before I actually moved into my new “open-ended temporary residence.” Yet that whole time, having it registered as an "open-ended temporary residence" protected me in case something adverse happened in my new neighborhood.

Meanwhile I registered the address of a local RV Park as yet a fourth “open-ended temporary residence” so I could go visit my family in the interim.  Only after I was safely ensconced in my new home did I delete the RV Park from my registry sheet.

I recently spoke to the mother of a Florida registrant who knew her home met her county’s requirements and asked how her son, who lives in the same county, should handle overnight or weekend visits. Did her son need to report travel to her house for every visit and create a new “temporary residence” every single time? Suppose someone opens up a child care center between visits? She and her son would both be screwed then, right? Yes. What a nightmare! 

I recommended he report her house as an “open-ended temporary residence” so her house would be grandfathered in. She was concerned about having her address showing up on the Florida Registry website for all her neighbors to see. That, of course, is part of the collateral damage that registries create for the families of registered citizens. However, if she can live with this unwanted exposure she can protect her address from a completely different kind of collateral damage and her son can visit her any time he/she/they want. 

She certainly had a decision to make, and I don’t know what she finally did.

You can make a day trip to any state park too, including Florida Caverns St. Pk. seen here.

You just can't camp for more than one night per calendar year per park.

Navigating statewide restrictions

If you are a Florida registrant you must already know you can’t “reside” within 1000 feet of any school, child care facility, park, or playground. Therefore you can’t go for a weekend campout at any state or local park campground. However, you could stay exactly one night per calendar year because there would be “only” two partial days on either side of that one night. 

So if you are traveling around the Sunshine State and stay only one night at each state or local park campground you’ll be okay. Just don’t report any of those campgrounds at your sheriff’s department as a “temporary address.” Instead, stay at a private campground, motel or other private address for the location(s) you’ll need to report. You can also stay at National Forest campgrounds and even use them as "temporary addresses" because as I have noted elsewhere, those aren’t parks.

On the other hand, you are allowed to visit any state or local park as often as you like as long as you don’t stay overnight. Arboretums too. Recently my brother (who is not registered) visited me from out of state and I took him to two different state parks while he was here.  You can also go to museums and historical sites. Even beaches unless there is a local restriction (see below).

However, you should beware of theme parks. They don’t count as state or local parks under Florida’s registry, BUT avoid buying any ticket where they take your fingerprint for re-entry ID purposes because they will do background checks and you could be taken aside by park security, humiliated in front of your family and denied entry. Disney World has a well-earned bad reputation for doing this, so as much as you may want to go there you should stay away.

Counties and Cities that pile on local restrictions

Yes, your worst Florida nightmare is true. Local cities and counties are allowed to pile on their own cruel and clearly unconstitutional registry restrictions on top of the already harsh state restrictions. These can range from increasing the residency distance and separation requirement to 2500 or even 3000 feet, thus making it nearly impossible to find anyplace to “reside” there (that’s the point, right?), to adding so-called “presence restrictions” or “exclusion zones” on top of the state wide residency restrictions, to adding more locations to the list of places you can’t go or be within 1000 (or 2500) feet of.

Brevard County, home of sandy white beaches and the popular Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, is one of the more egregious examples of this tactic. They piled on a 1000 foot “exclusion zone” for all school, child care facility, park, or playground. While they were at it they added beaches to that list. 

No Kennedy Space Center for you, you disgusting pervert! Its property line is within 1000 feet of a park AND a beach, so Brevard’s “exclusion zone” applies to the entire complex! And guess what? Their County Commission meeting chamber is also within 1000 feet of a city park, so when they recently added a new restriction allowing any so-called “child serving business” to declare a 1000 foot “exclusion zone” around itself (think about the devious cruelty of that for a minute) registrants were prohibited from attending the public hearing upon threat of immediate arrest!

Volusia County is another county that has piled “exclusion zones” on top of the state’s residency restrictions.

Hernando County recently adopted an “exclusion zone” that includes churches! Think about that one for a minute – you, dear devout Christian, are not allowed to attend church in Hernando County.

Miami-Dade County, Broward and Palm Beach Counties all have 2500 foot residency restrictions. In highly urbanized counties like this the result is clear – there is literally nowhere for a registered person to live that isn’t within 2500 feet of something. The director of the Miami-Dade County’s Coalition for the Homeless has also adopted a policy that no registered sex offenders are allowed in his homeless shelters. Thousands of registrants have been legislated into homelessness.

Recently the Miami-Dade County Commission became rightfully concerned about the “homeless problem” in their county. They asked for a survey of homelessness that revealed that fully 80% of all the homeless people about whom they claimed to be so concerned were registered people. So 80% of Miami-Dade County’s “homeless problem” could be solved if they would just repeal their residency restrictions and let homeless registrants into their homeless shelters.

But no, they won’t do that.

So my advice for all in-state registered travelers is to avoid all these counties if at all possible. As for out of state travelers - if you are fortunate enough to not be registered in Florida, please stay away!