Rep. Sean Matthews

This Act expands eligibility for the investment and employment credit against corporation income tax available under 30 Del. C. § 2011 to the operators of climate-controlled fruit or vegetable growing facilities with at least 400,000 square feet of enclosed space. Eligibility for the expanded tax credit is conditioned on a qualified investment of at least $40 million.

Substance use disorder constitutes a severe threat to the health and welfare of the citizens of Delaware. Recovery residences address the needs of individuals in recovery from substance use disorder by providing a safe and healthy living environment and a community of supportive recovering peers to which residents are accountable. Recovery residences support the recovery of individuals with substance use disorder and help prevent relapse, criminal justice system involvement, and overdose. Ensuring the certification of recovery residences according to nationally recognized evidence-based standards protects residents and communities from the harm caused by poorly managed or fraudulent recovery residences. This Act institutes a voluntary certification process for recovery residences under standards and procedures that uphold evidence-based best practices and support a safe, healthy, and effective recovery environment. This Act establishes residents' rights of a recovery residence and protects residents against unreasonable and unfair practices in setting and collecting fees and other residence payments. This Act provides training and technical assistance for recovery residence operators and staff. This Act enables the data collection needed to study the effectiveness of Delaware’s recovery residences. This Act also excludes a certified recovery house admission agreement from the provisions of the Landlord-Tenant Code.

This Act revises the existing crime of endangering the welfare of a child by providing or permitting a child to consume or inhale unprescribed controlled substances in the following ways: 1. Prohibits a person from intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly making controlled substances or prescription drugs available to a child through exposure, consumption, or inhalation. 2. Creates new penalties for endangering the welfare of a child through exposure, consumption, or inhalation of drugs. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 28 of Article IV of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to expand the scope of an existing crime within the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas, Family Court, or Justice of the Peace Court.

Sections 1 through 6 of this Act revise the State's existing child abuse laws as follows: (1) Revises Child Abuse in the Third Degree by removing extraneous language and redesignating it as Child Abuse in the Fourth Degree. (2) Revises Child Abuse in the Second Degree by redesignating it as Child Abuse in the Third Degree and making it a class D felony. (3) Revises Child Abuse in the First Degree by removing extraneous language, adding a sentence enhancement for certain aggravating factors, and redesignating it as Child Abuse in the Second Degree. (4) Creates a new crime of Child Abuse in the First Degree, a class A felony, when a person intentionally or recklessly causes serious physical injury to a child and that injury causes permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment of health, or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily organ. (5) Creates a new crime of Child Torture, a class B felony. (6) Creates a new crime of Continuous Child Abuse when a person intentionally or recklessly engages in 3 or more acts of child abuse or child torture over a period of time not less than 3 weeks in duration. Sections 7 through 9 and 11 through 14 of this Act make conforming amendments to the Delaware Code based on the revisions made by Sections 1 through 6 of this Act. Section 10 of this Act designates Child Abuse in the First Degree and Child Abuse in the Second Degree as violent felonies.

Teachers and other school employees (school employees) do not accrue annual leave that can be used on a flexible basis. Under current law, school employees may only use 3 days of sick leave for personal reasons and may be absent for 5 days after the death of an immediate family member and for 1 day only, on the day of the funeral, after the death of a near relative. This Act makes the following changes to the days that school employees may be absent without loss of pay: 1. Allows a school employee to use the 1 day of leave provided for the funeral of a near relative on the day before or the day after the funeral. 2. Increases the number of days of sick leave that a school employee can use for personal reasons from 3 to 5. 3. Provides that a chief school officer may not ask a school employee the reason they are requesting to be absent for personal reasons and can only deny the school employee's request because of operational requirements. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including all of the following: 1. Clarifies the definition of “immediate family”. 2. Corrects an internal reference in subsection (j) that has been incorrect since 1971 when the language regarding excused absences by employees of special school districts, the City of Wilmington, and the State Board of Education in subsection (g) was repealed and the current requirements for the payment of unused sick leave were first enacted. Finally, Sections 2 through 4 of this Act provide that if House Bill No. 65 is enacted in 2023, school employees will receive the same bereavement leave as state employees after a pregnancy loss. If HB 65 is not enacted in 2023, these changes will not take effect.

This bill establishes the Delaware Rare Disease Advisory Council which, among other things, is intended to educate medical professionals, government agencies, legislators, and the public about rare diseases. There are about 7,000 known rare diseases, and they create major public health challenges. The Advisory Council is charged with engaging in activities intended to benefit rare disease patients in Delaware, including encouraging and securing funding for the development of new treatments for rare diseases.

To prevent Delawareans from facing exorbitant costs for potentially life-saving screenings and follow-up tests, and to allow providers to use clinical judgement in the use of breast cancer examination tools based on established national standards, this Act requires that all insurance policies issued or renewed in this State include coverage of supplemental and diagnostic breast examinations on terms that are at least as favorable as the coverage of annual screening mammograms. The Act covers all group, blanket, and individual health insurance policies (except specified accident, specified disease, hospital indemnity, Medicare supplement, long-term care or other limited benefit health insurance policies) as well as the State employee healthcare plan and Medicaid. This substitute bill differs from the original bill in that it makes technical corrections, excludes certain health, and adds to the definition of breast MRI.

This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 1. Like Senate Bill No. 1, this Act creates a right to representation for tenants in evictions and other landlord-tenant actions. The disruptive displacement that accompanies eviction proceedings creates significant costs for state and local government related to shelter funding, education funding, health care provided in hospitals instead of community-based providers, transportation costs for homeless youth, and foster care. Evictions and disruptive displacement also have significant, well-documented, and long-lasting effects on the lives of individuals and families, including poorer physical and mental health, increased risk of homelessness, increased risk of employment loss, loss of personal property, damage to credit standing, and relocation into substandard housing. Further, evictions fall disproportionately on Black and Latinx families, who have also been the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis. Section 1 of this Act establishes a right to representation for evictions and other landlord-tenant actions for covered individuals with household incomes below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. The Attorney General shall contract with legal services providers for the provision of representation in proceedings covered by this Act. The Right to Representation Coordinator will manage the contracts and work with community organizations to do outreach and education regarding the right to representation. Section 1 of this Act requires landlords to provide notice of the right to representation at periodic designated intervals in the tenancy and in eviction proceedings. Section 2 of this Act authorizes the creation of a residential eviction diversion program modeled after the Superior Court’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program. Section 3 of this Act is a severability clause. Section 4 of this Act makes Sections 1 and 6 effective 120 days after the Act's enactment. Section 5 of this Act makes Section 2 of this Act contingent on funding. Section 6 requires the Coordinator to provide the General Assembly with a copy of the first annual report required under § 5605 of Title 25, as contained in this Act, to determine if additional funding is needed to address the fiscal impact of the Act on the Justice of the Peace Court. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 1 as it does all of the following: (1) Removes a judicial or administrative proceeding to remedy a violation of law related to security deposit from the list of proceedings included in a covered proceeding. (2) Replaces “covered individual” with “tenant” in the provision determining a tenant’s eligibility to be a covered individual. (3) Makes clear that a covered individual’s household income is to be determined over the immediately preceding 12 months. (4) Makes clear how to determine household income for a full-time student. (5) Tabulates the list of notices provided by a landlord that trigger a covered individual’s receipt of legal representation and further clarifies the notice related to termination of a rental agreement. (6) Provides that a designated organization may decline representation if an attorney deems the covered individual’s defense to lack merit, in addition to a determination by the attorney that an appeal lacks merit. (7) Provides that a covered individual is entitled to receive legal representation as soon as practicable after the initiation of a covered proceeding, rather than just an eviction proceeding. (8) Removes the requirement that a court, at a covered individual’s first appearance in a covered proceeding, provide a covered individual with notice of the individual’s right to, and the availability of, legal representation under this Act. This notice is intended to be provided earlier by the Right to Representation Coordinator (“Coordinator”). (9) Requires that events planned for, and information distributed to, tenants also be made available to landlords and property managers. (10) Requires that the Coordinator include a full accounting of their expenditures as part of the required annual report. (11) Provides that the Coordinator is to prepare information explaining legal representation available to tenants, provides that the information is known as “informational materials”, requires the Coordinator to prepare the informational materials in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, and clarifies the events that require the informational materials to be provided to a tenant. (12) Clarifies the date from which actions are to be taken by the Coordinator and the Justice of the Peace Courts. (13) Makes clear that the provision of legal representation to a covered individual under Section 1 of this Act is not intended to be the sole basis for a continuance of a covered proceeding scheduled before the effective date of Section 1 of this Act for a hearing on or after the effective date of Section 1 of this Act. (14) Provides that the residential eviction diversion program includes an initial mediation conference rather than a conciliation conference. (15) Makes technical corrections, including to use the defined term “rental agreement” instead of “lease” and to insert “Delaware” before “Supreme Court” for clarity.

Delaware law expressly prohibits employment discrimination based upon surviving domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Such discrimination includes: (1) failing or refusing to hire or discharging an employee because the individual was a victim of domestic violence, sexual offense, or stalking; or (2) failing or refusing to make reasonable accommodations to the limitations known to the employer and related to domestic violence, a sexual offense, or stalking. Current statute requires the victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking to provide verification to their employer. This bill provides employers with the option to require verification in order to receive accommodations.

This Act extends the Clean Air Act Title V Operating Permit Program annual fees for facilities in Delaware, which have historically expired and been reauthorized by the General Assembly every three years. Existing statutory authorization to collect fees sunsets on December 31, 2023. This legislation updates the fee assessments based on the work of the Title V Operating Permit Program Advisory Committee and makes additional clarifying updates. For 2024-2026, the total fee will be comprised of a base fee, user fee, and program fee. Base fees are based on the number of staff hours spent on the source’s permitting, compliance, and enforcement activities, while the user fee is based on the source’s air emissions. The program fee will be assessed based on the total base and user fees. This Act authorizes the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to collect Title V annual fees for calendar years 2024 through 2026, at which point the authority sunsets and would need to be reauthorized.