This House Concurrent Resolution designates the second week of October 2024 as Obesity Care Week in Delaware. It directly affects the state's residents, healthcare providers, and policymakers by formally acknowledging obesity as a serious public health crisis. The measure highlights the need for comprehensive, unbiased care and aims to reduce stigma surrounding the condition. It does not create new laws or funding but serves as a symbolic recognition to encourage focus on obesity treatment.
This Senate Concurrent Resolution creates the Delaware Restoring the Family Unit Task Force to study how state laws affect family stability. The group is designed to examine specific policies in taxation, welfare, education, and recidivism to identify any factors that might discourage marriage or family unity. Its members include legislators, state agency heads, and community representatives who will meet to review these issues and submit a report with recommendations by March 2025. Although the resolution was introduced in June 2024, it was defeated by the Senate and did not become law.
This House Concurrent Resolution directs the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Social Services to jointly produce a report outlining the creation of a student injury monitoring system. The system is intended to facilitate the sharing of injury information from medical professionals to school nurses, counselors, athletic trainers, and any other necessary medical professionals working in schools, focusing on injuries that require surgery, pain management, physical therapy, and concussions, while ensuring compliance with health information privacy laws. The report is to be submitted by August 31, 2025.
This substitute bill provides more clarity on the process by which a tenant may file an action in the Justice of the Peace Court to withhold rent payments in escrow. Specifically, the bill provides what the tenant must file in order to bring such action and how such actions proceed in court. This substitute bill also provides the remedy of termination of lease when the conditions of the rental unit threatens the life, health, or safety of the tenant or a member of the tenant’s household. This substitute bill also clarifies the appeal process for actions to withhold rent payments in escrow. This substitute bill also provides a tenant the right to raise as an affirmative defense to an action for summary possession filed by the landlord that a condition exists that threatens the life, health, or safety of the tenant or a member of the tenant’s household if the tenant satisfies specific requirements. If the Court determines that the tenant has satisfied those requirements, the Court may order that in lieu of summary possession, the tenant pay all base monthly rent owed to the landlord to an escrow account established by the Court. The Court may order the landlord to remedy the conditions alleged by a specific date. If both the landlord and tenant comply with the Court’s order, the amount held in escrow will be paid to the landlord within 30 days, and no judgment for possession shall be entered. Finally, this substitute bill provides that the Act will take effect 180 days after its enactment into law in order to provide the Justice of the Peace Court sufficient time to enact rules to implement the Act.
This Substitute bill clarifies that the definition of “day” does not include Saturday, Sunday, any federal holiday, or any State legal holiday when the specified number of days is 12 or less. When the specified number of days is more than 12 days, “day” means a calendar day. If the first or last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, federal holiday, or State holiday under § 501 of Title 1, the date shall be extended to the next business day. This Substitute bill also clarifies that the definition of “guest” or “visitor” does not include a business invitee. This Substitute bill also removes the additional wetland provision in H.B. 372 and restores the original language in this section of the title.
This Resolution recognizes June 2024 as “Post-Traumatic Stress Injury Month” and June 27, 2024, as “Post-Traumatic Stress Injury Day”, and encourages citizens of the state to continue their work educating victims of assault or abuse, combat, serious accidents, and natural disasters about the causes, symptoms, and treatment of PTSI.
This is a substitute for House Bill No. 326. Non-profit hospitals are granted tax-exempt status on the premise that they serve a vital role in promoting the health and well-being of the communities they serve. Community benefit spending is a means by which hospitals fulfill this obligation. Such spending includes activities like providing uncompensated care, supporting medical research, offering health education and prevention programs, subsidizing community clinics, and addressing social determinants of health. Like House Bill No. 326, this substitute bill requires Delaware’s non-profit hospitals to provide the state and public with an annual report outlining their community benefits spending, bringing Delaware in line with 31 other states, including all of Delaware’s neighboring states, that require reporting. Like House Bill No. 326, this substitute bill defines “community benefits program,” outlines the minimum contents that must be included in a community benefits activity report, and requires that the report be made available to the public. This substitute contains provisions allowing the report to be submitted electronically to State officials on an annual basis. It differs from the original bill in that the deadline for submitting the report is changed from January 31 of each year to 30 days after a hospital files a federal Form 990. This substitute also contains technical changes to reference and accord with appropriate law and regulations, and broadens the list of information that must be included in the community benefits report.
This House Concurrent Resolution urges the establishment of a medical school in the State of Delaware; calls for the formation of a formal Steering Group to guide the planning and implementation of a medical school; encourages the pursuit of partnerships with established medical schools and other medical education programs; and commits to supporting efforts to secure necessary funding needed to establish a medical school.
This bill codifies that the Superior Court Veterans’ Treatment Court is a qualified rehabilitation program under § 4177D of Title 21 of the Delaware Code for persons seeking to have their driver's licenses reinstated after a DUI. This Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This concurrent resolution designates October of each year as “Dyslexia Awareness Month” in Delaware. According to the United States National Institute of Health, dyslexia is a learning disability that can hinder a person’s ability to read, write, spell, and sometimes speak. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in children and persists throughout life with 10 percent of the population or one out of every 10 people in the United States suffering from dyslexia. Children with dyslexia who are identified as dyslexic and provided with effective reading instruction in kindergarten and first grade, will have significantly fewer problems learning to read at grade level than children who are not identified as dyslexic or provided help until third grade or after. Proper diagnosis, early and appropriate treatment, and support from family, teachers, and friends will greatly increase a child’s academic success and self-esteem; however, it is never too late for adults with dyslexia to learn to read, and process and express information more efficiently. October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month, reminding students and their parents that living with dyslexia can be tackled with early intervention. Each year during the month of October, conferences are held around the United States to promote awareness, research, and early identification of dyslexia.
Survivors of child sexual abuse that occurred in this State who have been barred from filing suit against their abusers by virtue of the expiration of the former civil statute of limitations, shall be permitted to file those claims in the Superior Court of this State at any time. This is intended to apply retroactively.
This bill mandates that Medicaid in Delaware cover doula services for pregnant and birthing individuals, affecting all health insurance carriers within the state. It requires coverage for three prenatal visits, three postpartum visits, and attendance during labor, with specific provisions for additional postpartum visits if recommended by a licensed medical professional. To implement this, the state must create a certification process for doulas and set reimbursement rates that ensure a livable income for those providing the services. The law officially took effect on January 1, 2024, and was signed into law by the Governor.
