diff --git a/news/changelog-1.7.md b/news/changelog-1.7.md
index f85d85f9b6..d06b1414cb 100644
--- a/news/changelog-1.7.md
+++ b/news/changelog-1.7.md
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ All changes included in 1.7:
 - ([#11835](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11835)): Take markdown structure into account when detecting minimum heading level.
 - ([#11903](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11903)): `crossref` configuration like `fig-title` or `tbl-title` now correctly supports multi word values, e.g. `fig-title: 'Supplementary Figure'`.
 - ([#11878](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11878), [#12085](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/12085)): Correctly fixup raw LaTeX table having an unexpected table env with options (e.g `\begin{table}[!ht]`) to be handled as crossref table.
+- ([#12344](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/12344)): Ensure decorated code blocks do not float when inside layout elements.
 - Update to Pandoc's LaTeX template following Pandoc 3.6.3 support:
   - `format: beamer` now uses its own template. The main template for latex does not use `$if(beamer)$` anymore, and the new template for beamer uses the same partials as latex one.
   - Improved Babel support:
diff --git a/src/resources/filters/customnodes/decoratedcodeblock.lua b/src/resources/filters/customnodes/decoratedcodeblock.lua
index e996b0a618..5aeefb0a55 100644
--- a/src/resources/filters/customnodes/decoratedcodeblock.lua
+++ b/src/resources/filters/customnodes/decoratedcodeblock.lua
@@ -95,11 +95,10 @@ _quarto.ast.add_renderer("DecoratedCodeBlock",
     -- further, otherwise generate the listing div and return it
     if not param("listings", false) then
       local listingDiv = pandoc.Div({})
-      local position = ""
-      if _quarto.format.isBeamerOutput() then
-        -- Adjust default float positionment for beamer (#5536)
-        position = "[H]"
-      end
+      -- Adjust default float positionment for beamer (#5536)
+      -- Adjust default float positionment for code blocks that request it (#12344)
+      local needs_hold = _quarto.format.isBeamerOutput() or node.hold
+      local position = needs_hold and "[H]" or ""
       listingDiv.content:insert(pandoc.RawBlock("latex", "\\begin{codelisting}" .. position))
 
       local captionContent = node.caption
diff --git a/src/resources/filters/customnodes/panellayout.lua b/src/resources/filters/customnodes/panellayout.lua
index 6ba5cadfbd..0a48422a06 100644
--- a/src/resources/filters/customnodes/panellayout.lua
+++ b/src/resources/filters/customnodes/panellayout.lua
@@ -89,8 +89,23 @@ _quarto.ast.add_handler({
     -- construct a minimal rows-cells div scaffolding
     -- so contents are properly stored in the cells slot
 
+    -- #12344: if there are decoratedcodeblocks inside the layout,
+    -- we need to ask them to render themselves as [H] or we'll get outer par mode errors.
+    local layout = tbl.layout
+    if quarto.format.isLatexOutput() then
+      layout = pandoc.List(tbl.layout):map(function(lst)
+        return pandoc.List(lst):map(function(cell)
+          return _quarto.ast.walk(cell, {
+            DecoratedCodeBlock = function(decorated)
+              decorated.hold = true
+              return decorated
+            end
+          })
+        end)
+      end)
+    end
     local rows_div = pandoc.Div({})
-    for i, row in ipairs(tbl.layout) do
+    for i, row in ipairs(layout) do
       local row_div = pandoc.Div(row)
       if tbl.is_float_reftarget then
         row_div = _quarto.ast.walk(row_div, {
diff --git a/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/03/21/issue-12344.qmd b/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/03/21/issue-12344.qmd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6af00bd780
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/docs/smoke-all/2025/03/21/issue-12344.qmd
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+---
+format: 
+  pdf: 
+    keep-tex: true
+---
+
+::: {layout-ncol="2" .column-page-right}
+``` {.markdown filename="01-import.qmd"}
+---
+title: Data Import and Cleaning
+author: Soraya Drake
+format:
+  html:
+    toc: true
+    code-fold: true
+---
+
+## Import
+
+...
+```
+
+``` {.markdown filename="02-visualization.qmd"}
+---
+title: Exploratory Visualization
+author: Soraya Drake
+format:
+  html:
+    toc: true
+    code-fold: true
+---
+
+## Distributions
+
+...
+```
+:::
\ No newline at end of file