Dade City, FL Curfew Laws: Juvenile Curfew (2026)

Section 62-51 defines a "minor" as anyone under 18 and a "public place" broadly, covering streets, highways, public parks, and the common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transportation facilities and shops. Section 62-52 sets three curfew windows: 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weeknights, a later 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. window on Friday, Saturday and legal holidays, and a school-hours ban, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on any school day, for a minor who's been suspended or expelled, extending within 1,000 feet of a school.

A first violation draws only a written warning; a repeat violation after that warning is a class IV civil infraction under the city's uniform fine schedule. If police take a minor into custody for a curfew violation, they transport the minor to a police station or a cooperating religious or civic curfew program and try to reach a parent; if no parent is reached within two hours, or a parent refuses custody, the minor can be taken home or handled under F.S. ch. 39, pt.

III. Section 62-53 places a parallel legal duty on parents to keep their minor off the street during curfew hours, with the same written-warning-then-civil-infraction escalation for a parent who knowingly permits a violation. Section 62-54 carves out eight exemptions, including a minor accompanied by a parent, running an emergency errand, exercising First Amendment rights, working, returning from a school, religious or civic function, on the minor's own property, interstate travel, or attending a sponsored event at a theme park or entertainment complex under F.S. § 509.013(9). The ordinance dates to Ord. No. 716, § 1, adopted September 25, 1997.