Four Hours, One Day, Five Days — The APD Incident Reporting Clocks a Florida Group Home Runs On

This rule was amended on 26 March 2026 along with the rest of Chapter 65G-2, and APD moved the reporting itself onto a new system in the middle of the year. So both the deadlines and the route are worth re-reading even if you thought you knew them.

A note on why this is written the way it is. Everything below is about categories and clocks — the shape of the duty, not anybody's incident. Write the specifics of a real event on APD's form and nowhere else.

Before any clock starts: two things happen first

• Act. 65G-2.010(6)(d): the provider or covered person "must take immediate action in the situation to resolve the emergency and ensure the individual's health and safety" — the rule names calling 911, CPR, and back blows and abdominal thrust manoeuvres for choking. Reporting comes after the person is safe.
• Known or suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation goes straight to the Florida Abuse Hotline. 65G-2.010(6)(a) requires it "immediately", under ss. 39.201 and 415.1034, F.S. This is a separate duty. Filing an APD form does not discharge it, and neither does telling your supervisor.

There is also a notification the rule puts alongside the report: 65G-2.010(6)(c) requires immediately notifying the resident's legal representative and support coordinator, and for children in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, the designated caseworker.

Clock one — four hours, for a critical incident

65G-2.010(6)(f): initial notice "within four hours after the provider or covered person becomes aware of the incident." It may be given through the Agency's designated incident reporting system, by email, or by phone call — and the rule closes the obvious loophole in one sentence:

Then the complete APD Incident Reporting Form must be submitted electronically within one calendar day after the initial notification.

The eleven critical categories, as the rule lists them at 65G-2.010(6)(f)3.:

• An unexpected death of a resident or client.
• Sexual activity as defined in s. 393.135, F.S. between a covered person and a resident or client regardless of consent; nonconsensual sexual activity between residents or clients; sexual activity involving a resident or client who is a minor; and nonconsensual sexual activity between a resident or client and anyone in the community.
• Unexpected absence or unknown whereabouts beyond one hour of a resident or client who is a minor, or an adult who has been adjudicated incompetent.
• A life-threatening injury or illness.
• A hospital admission as a result of a medication error.
• Negative news media reports about the operation of the facility or the care of residents or clients.
• Arrest of a resident or client for a violent criminal offence.
• Arrest of a covered person for a potentially disqualifying offence specified in s. 393.0655, F.S.
• A DCF finding of verified abuse, neglect, exploitation or abandonment by the provider or its employees.
• Suspected or confirmed human trafficking.
• A resident, participant or client left in a vehicle unattended.

Clock two — one calendar day, for a reportable incident

65G-2.010(6)(g): reportable incidents go to the Regional Office within one calendar day following the incident, by submitting a completed APD Incident Reporting Form, electronically mailed to the designated Regional Office email address for the region in which the resident resides. Worth knowing which address that is before you need it.

The ten reportable categories:

• A death that does not constitute an unexpected death.
• Physical altercations — resident with a member of the community, with a direct service provider, or between residents — that result in law enforcement contact.
• An injury from an accident, abuse, neglect or other incident occurring while receiving services, that requires treatment in urgent care, an emergency room or a physician's office, or hospital admission.
• Arrest of a resident or client for a non-violent offence while under the care of a provider or covered person.
• Unexpected absence or unknown whereabouts of a legally competent adult beyond eight hours.
• Any act clearly reflecting a physical attempt by a resident or client to cause their own death.
• Commitment to mental health services under ch. 394, F.S. — the Baker Act.
• Commitment to mental health services through voluntary commitment.
• Injury of a covered person caused by a resident or client.
• Sudden onset of illness while receiving services requiring urgent care, emergency room or physician treatment, or hospital admission.

The one-hour versus eight-hour split is the distinction most worth memorising. The same event — a person is not where they should be — is a four-hour critical report after one hour if they are a minor or an adult adjudicated incompetent, and a one-day reportable after eight hours if they are a legally competent adult. Getting that backwards in either direction is a real error.

Clock three — five days, for follow-up

65G-2.010(6)(h): all follow-up measures taken to protect the person, gain control, remedy or manage the situation must be noted on the APD Incident Reporting Form, submitted to the Regional Office no later than five days following the date the incident was reported. Ongoing follow-up continues until the incident is resolved.

One mercy in the rule, easy to miss: "If the initial incident report contains all necessary information for the initial and follow-up reporting, an additional follow-up is not necessary." A thorough first report can close the loop.

Follow-up documentation includes the actions implemented, the preventative measures taken to stop the same type of incident recurring where applicable, and any medical, behavioural or additional support activity relating to ongoing health and safety.

What the form itself has to contain

The rule specifies a minimum, at 65G-2.010(6)(f)2., and it is longer than most people expect at four in the morning: who was involved including staff and witnesses, when it happened, where, the incident category and type, a detailed description of the circumstances before, during and after, causes or contributing factors, the provider responsible for care at the time, every action taken, anything found in the provider's own investigation, and law enforcement and DCF information where applicable.

The form is APD Incident Reporting Form OP 3-0006 (December 2025), incorporated by reference into 65G-2.010(6)(b). If your copy predates December 2025, it is the wrong one.

The route changed this year

APD Provider Advisory #2026-011 (effective 1 June 2026) announced the new APD Incident Management System (IMS) Provider Portal — initiating and submitting reports, viewing active and historical incidents, uploading documents, and completing follow-up tasks assigned by APD. Access runs on ID PASS credentials reached through CyberArk; providers without iConnect credentials are told to contact their regional APD office to request ID PASS provisioning. There is self-paced IMS Provider Portal training in TRAIN Florida.

If nobody at your business has been provisioned, that is worth fixing on a quiet Tuesday rather than during the four hours.

A card for the wall, not a log

The useful thing to prepare is not a record of incidents — it is the answer to who does what, in what order, written down before anyone needs it. Fill this in and put it where the phone is.

Why Care Wizard does not track your incidents

Worth saying plainly, since this is our own site. We do not hold incident records and we are not going to. Care Wizard holds no resident or client information at all — staff compliance and facility records only — and an incident report is resident information by its nature. That is a structural decision rather than a feature we have not got to yet: the surest way to keep sensitive information out of a system is for the system to have nowhere to put it.

The APD Incident Reporting Form goes to APD. What we can help with is the part that decides whether the four hours goes well — whether the person on shift has current CPR, has done Zero Tolerance, and knows who to call.

This article is general information for Florida APD group-home providers, not legal advice or a guarantee of compliance. Rules change and vary by region — always confirm the current requirement with the cited source and your APD regional office.