This Act is the second leg of a constitutional amendment to make technical corrections to the Delaware Constitution. The first leg of this constitutional amendment was House Bill No. 430 of the 152nd General Assembly, published in Chapter 281 of Volume 84 of the Laws of Delaware. On passage of this second leg by this General Assembly, this amendment will become part of the Delaware Constitution. First, this Act makes the language of the Delaware Constitution gender silent. Senate Bill No. 97 (152nd General Assembly), enacted as Chapter 42 of Volume 84 of the Laws of Delaware, directed the Code Revisors to use gender silent techniques to ensure masculine or feminine pronouns are not used in Delaware Code unless the usage requires otherwise. Thus, instead of drafting a law to say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if he or she deems him or her qualified”, following gender silent techniques the law would say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if the Governor deems the individual qualified.” This technique has the added benefit of providing clarity as many times use of multiple masculine or feminine pronouns can result in confusion as to which noun the pronouns refer. This Act would apply this same drafting technique to the Delaware Constitution. This action is consistent with the General Assembly’s amendment of the Constitution in 1999 following the adoption of a law directing the Code Revisors to gender neutralize or otherwise ensure that a solely masculine or feminine designation never occurs unless it could only apply to one gender. Second, this Act makes additional technical corrections identified by the General Assembly's Division of Legislative Services. Specifically, these technical corrections include the following: (1) Officially authorizing the headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution as the headings are contained in the “Constitution of the State of Delaware, Adopted 1897, As Amended”, as published by the Delaware Code Revisors in the Delaware Code. The headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution are not original to the Constitution adopted in 1897. These headings were added during the 1953 revision to the Delaware Code. Since then, publication of the Constitution has included headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution in the version of the Delaware Constitution that has been published in the Delaware Code. Almost immediately after the 1953 revision to the Delaware Code, the General Assembly began enacting new constitutional amendments with headings and amending existing Sections of the Delaware Constitution using the headings provided or making amendments to the headings provided. However, these headings were not officially authorized by the General Assembly. Consistent with § 306 of Title 1 of the Delaware Code, the intent of authorizing all headings in the Delaware Constitution is for the purpose of convenient reference, not as an interpretive tool for the courts. (2) Based on the adoption of headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution, removing existing Section numbers and relying instead on the adopted headings. (3) Consistently using the series (Oxford) comma. (4) Implementing a consistent hierarchy scheme and naming, consistent with the Delaware Code. (5) Implementing a consistent scheme for naming, capitalization, and citing of references to provisions of the Delaware Constitution. (6) Implementing a consistent scheme for numbers used for time, dates, and money by using the numerical form of the number only. (7) Capitalizing consistent with standard capitalization rules. (8) Replacing references to “this amended Article IV of this Constitution” with “this Article”. (9) Replacing references to “this amended Article IV of this Constitution becomes effective” with “May 14, 1951”, which is the date the referenced amendments took effect. (10) Removing usages of “but not limited to”. (11) Removing from § 8 of Article IV a definition providing that “Supreme Court”, as used in § 4 of Article V, means the Superior Court and replacing “Supreme Court” in § 4 of Article V with “Superior Court” for clarity. (12) Removing § 11(c) of Article VIII from the Constitution. This provision was not intended to be included in the Constitution as it was drafted as a separate bill section of the bill that proposed and concurred in the constitutional amendment creating § 11(a) and (b). It was intended to apply only to taxes or licenses fees authorized by the General Assembly but not yet effective and so not intended to be included in the Constitution. (13) Inserting the effective date of the constitutional amendment that enacted § 12 of Article VIII for clarity. (14) Correcting misspellings and misused words. (15) Making corrections to Section headings. (16) Making technical changes to § 4A of Article V, including to remove an “either” that is inappropriately used in a list of more than 2 items. (17) Removing the hyphen in “Lieutenant Governor” and “Attorney General”. (18) Changing references to “the State” to “this State”. (19) Removing usages of “said”. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when the General Assembly amends the Delaware Constitution.
This bill removes certain limitations placed on Sussex County Vocational Technical High School, thereby allowing the school district the same rights and privileges as Polytech (Kent County) and New Castle Vo-Tech.
This Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR 30) formally designates April 2025 as "Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month" in Delaware. It directly recognizes the Sikh American community in Delaware, highlighting their historical presence since the 1970s, cultural contributions (including Vaisakhi and Guru Nanak's birthday in April), community service, and challenges like discrimination. The resolution serves as a symbolic gesture to acknowledge their role in Delaware's diversity and societal contributions, without creating new laws or funding. As a procedural resolution, it has no binding effect beyond raising public awareness.
This Resolution pays tribute to the men and women of the Delaware National Guard for their service and sacrifices in support of defending our state and nation, and recognizes the outstanding advocacy provided by the National Guard Association of Delaware
This House Concurrent Resolution designates the 21st day of the Month of March 2025 as “Rock Your Socks for World Down Syndrome Day” and celebrates the beauty and contributions that people with Down syndrome make in Delaware.
This Act requires the Department of Elections to review every political committee’s contribution and expense report and to note the report, on the Department’s website, as either “Submitted but Not Reviewed” or “Reviewed and Final”. If the Department discovers any violations of this chapter, it must work with the candidate to rectify the violations. Once the violations are corrected and the candidate submits an amended report, the report’s status shall be updated on the Department’s website and clearly marked as “Reviewed and Final”. This Act will apply to all contribution and expense reports submitted after March 1, 2026.
SCR 29 is a symbolic resolution recognizing March 18, 2025, as "National Public Defense Day" in Delaware. It commemorates the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in *Gideon v. Wainwright*, which established the right to counsel for indigent defendants. The resolution honors Delaware's Office of Defense Services, which provides legal representation to people who cannot afford attorneys and handles over 20,000 cases annually. As a procedural resolution, it does not create new laws or change policies - it solely serves to acknowledge the importance of public defense.
This resolution symbolically recognizes March 6-7, 2025, as "Delaware Giving Day" to honor the annual charitable event organized by Do More 24 Delaware. It does not create new laws or allocate funds but formally acknowledges the statewide nonprofit fundraising campaign that supports over 600 organizations. The resolution highlights the event's impact, including $2.5 million raised in 2025 and its role in connecting donors with community causes across all Delaware zip codes. It directly affects Delaware’s nonprofit sector by elevating public awareness of their work. (1 sentence summary as it is a procedural recognition.)
The State of Delaware previously offered an employer match for state employee contributions to the deferred compensation program. The purpose of the match was to help state employees save and build wealth for retirement and to enable state government to recruit and retain talent by offering a valuable retirement savings benefit. In July 2008, during the Great Recession, the State suspended the employer match to cut costs. Every year since fiscal year 2008, the General Assembly has written in the annual appropriations bill: “It is the intent of the General Assembly that this program be reinstated when funding becomes available.” This Act updates the laws governing the employer match in anticipation of the General Assembly restoring the match this session and increases the maximum match to $20 per pay period. This Act also eases restrictions on which participants are eligible for the match. To help employees who are unable to save for retirement because of their student loan burden, this Act enables a match for employee’s student loan payments with employer contributions to their deferred compensation account. Congress enabled employers to make this type of matching contribution with the passage of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which was included in the Federal Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. This Act provides the Plans Management Board with the discretion to determine which plan the matching contributions should be deposited into.
This Act is the first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution to make clear that the right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and may not be infringed without a showing of a compelling state interest. The U.S. Supreme Court has long interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment’s prohibition against the State depriving a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law to prevent arbitrary or unreasonable action by the State. Specifically, in 1923, the Court, in Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 stated: “While this Court has not attempted to define with exactness [of] the liberty thus guaranteed [under the Fourteenth Amendment], the term has received much consideration and some of the included things have been definitely stated. Without doubt, it denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.” In the 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, the U.S. Supreme Court found that a law making the use of contraceptives a criminal offense violated the right to privacy. The Court held that within the Bill of Rights, “Various guarantees create zones of privacy. The right of association contained in the penumbra of the First Amendment is one, as we have seen. The Third Amendment in its prohibition against the quartering of soldiers ‘in any house’ in time of peace without the consent of the owner is another facet of that privacy. The Fourth Amendment explicitly affirms the ‘right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.’ The Fifth Amendment in its Self-Incrimination Clause enables the citizen to create a zone of privacy which government may not force him to surrender to his detriment. The Ninth Amendment provides: ‘The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.’" More recently, in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), the Court stated that “our laws and tradition afford constitutional protection to personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education.” In explaining the respect the Constitution demands for the autonomy of the person in making these choices, the Lawrence Court noted that the Court previous held that “[t]hese matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” In reaching its ruling, the Lawrence Court held that the petitioners were “entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government. ‘It is a promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of personal liberty which the government may not enter.’” The General Assembly proposes the enactment of this constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right of individual privacy to secure for Delawareans the rights the U.S. Supreme Court has previously found emanate from the federal constitution in the face of concerns regarding the continued effect of these U.S. Supreme Court precedents. Amending the Delaware Constitution requires not only the passing of the changes in this Act but also passage of the same changes after the next general election by the next General Assembly. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend the Delaware Constitution.
This Act updates the DOE’s standards for selecting and and implementing statewide reading screeners and literacy intervention approaches. In summary, this Act does the following: 1. Clarifies factors that the Department must consider when selecting literacy intervention approaches that may be used by schools. 2. Authorizes school districts and charter schools to submit an alternative reading screener to the Department for approval. 3. Requires the Department to annually identify schools with a significant level of students below proficient on the State’s third grade reading assessment for 2 consecutive years. 4. Requires the Department to provide additional supports to schools identified as below proficient.
This Senate Concurrent Resolution recognizes March 2025 as "Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month" in the State of Delaware and highlights the importance of education, prevention, and early detection to reduce the impact of colorectal cancer.
