Rep. Frank Cooke

In Chapter 70, Subchapter V of Title 25, the Manufactured Home Relocation Trust Fund was established. It is administered by a Board of Directors. The Board was directed to set a monthly assessment for deposit in the Trust Fund for each rented lot in a manufactured home community. This Act removes the cap of the Trust Fund, currently set at $15 million. This Act also raises the amount of the tenant portion of the monthly assessment to be redirected to the Delaware Manufactured Home Owner Attorney Fund from 50 cents of the tenant portion to $1.50. This Act takes effect on the date of enactment.

This Act amends the long-term care resident’s bill of rights to provide that residents may not be subject to discrimination based on their membership in a protected class. Specifically, this Act does the following: 1. Adds “or domestic partner” to the provision of the resident’s bill of rights that gives spouses the right to visit and, if feasible and not medically contraindicated, to share a room if both are residents of the facility. This addition is being made to ensure that domestic partnerships entered into in other states are recognized. 2. Adds a non-discrimination provision to § 1121 of Title 16, which enumerates the rights of residents of long-term care facilities. 3. Requires the Department of Health and Social Services (“Department”) to provide a revised notice of resident rights under § 1121 of Title 16 to each resident or the resident’s authorized representative within 30 days of any changes to those rights. 4. Requires each facility to provide appropriate staff training whenever there is a revision to the resident’s bill of rights within 60 days of that revision. The purpose of this Act is to protect long-term care facility residents from discrimination and to ensure that residents, their representatives, and facility staff are aware of residents’ rights.

This Act supports critical health care workforce research and planning efforts by giving the Division of Public Health and the Delaware Health Care Commission the ability to obtain comprehensive workforce-related data from the Division of Professional Regulation. It requires the Division of Public Health’s Office of Healthcare Provider Resources to collaborate with the Delaware Health Care Commission and the Division of Professional Regulation to determine what data should be collected from health care providers during the licensing and renewal process to assist the Division of Public Health with workforce research and planning. This Act also directs the Division of Professional Regulation to collect health care workforce-related data during the licensing or renewal processes. The data collected will be for purpose of health care workforce research and planning and will not include personal information such as personal financial information. The health care provider licensing process provides a rich opportunity for this State to obtain information it needs to ensure that its health care workforce is equipped to meet the needs of Delaware residents. Collecting data with the goal of informing health care workforce research and planning is a common practice nationwide, with at least 28 states collecting health care workforce data as part of the licensing process. Such data will fill crucial gaps in the Division of Public Health’s ability to understand health care workforce needs and develop policies and programs aimed at meeting them. As is currently the case, health care workforce data collected by the Division of Professional Regulation may only be used for official state business. This Act provides that official state business includes the following purposes specific to health care workforce research and planning: 1. Identifying and tracking data related to Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), Maternity Care Target Areas (MCTAs), and Medically Underserved Areas and Populations (MUA/Ps), and other initiatives identified by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. 2. Health care workforce research and planning. 3. Understanding issues related to supply, demand, distribution, and use of health care workers. 4. Informing health care workforce policy. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law with the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act creates a special open enrollment period for persons who are already enrolled in a Medicare supplement policy or certificate to cancel their existing policy or certificate and purchase another Medicare supplement policy or certificate that provides the same or lesser benefits. Only persons who are already enrolled in a Medicare supplement policy or certificate are eligible for the special open enrollment period. The special enrollment period begins 30 days before an eligible person's birthday and remains open for at least 30 days following the eligible person's birthday. During this special open enrollment period, individuals switching from one Medicare supplement policy to another cannot be denied coverage and coverage and rates cannot be dependent upon the person’s medical history. The Act also obligates issuers to notify eligible persons who are enrolled in their Medicare supplement policies or certificates of the dates of the open enrollment period, at least 30 days before it begins, and of any modification to the benefits provided by the policy under which the person is currently insured. This Act also allows persons enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan to cancel their existing policy, enroll in Medicare during the annual Medicare open enrollment period and apply for a Medicare supplement policy. For individuals switching from Medicare Advantage to a Medicare supplement policy, the Act prohibits issuers of Medicare supplement policies from denying applications for such policies but does allow issuers to individually rate and apply a pre-existing condition limitation.

Like House Bill No. 15, this Act permits early childhood educators in the public schools to use and encourage play-based learning in their classrooms and in their curriculum. This Act permits local education agencies to provide early childhood professional development in play-based learning, which may include professional development programs developed by the Department of Education. This Act also permits the Department to promulgate regulations for purposes of implementing this Act. This House Substitute No. 1 for House Bill No. 15 incorporates the changes from House Amendment 1 to House Bill No. 15 with respect to the definitions of early childhood education and early childhood educators encompassing education from prekindergarten through second grade, adding topics that may be included in materials developed to provide ongoing early childhood professional development in play-based learning, and making technical corrections for clarity. This House Substitute also updates the definition of “play” and “play-based learning” contained in House Bill No. 15 and adds a definition for “guided play”.

This Act enacts the Interstate Compact for School Psychologists (“Compact”), which is designed to facilitate the interstate practice of school psychology in educational settings. School-based mental health services are in high demand in Delaware, but workforce shortages can make it difficult to meet that demand. By creating an additional licensing pathway for school psychologists to obtain equivalent licenses to practice school psychology in any state that is a member of the Compact, the Act aims to increase the availability of school psychological services for students in this State. The Interstate Compact for School Psychologists must be enacted in 7 states to become effective. The Compact has been enacted in 2 states and legislation is pending in several others.

This Act adds intentional interference with the operation of a school bus to the offense of disorderly conduct. Intentional interference with a school bus may include boarding a school bus and refusing to exit after being lawfully ordered to do so by the school bus driver; wrongfully restricting the movement of a school bus; or threatening the school bus driver, a student, or any passenger entering, leaving, or waiting for a school bus. A student or passenger otherwise authorized to be on the school bus in the ordinary course of business may not be guilty of disorderly conduct for intentional interference with the operation of a school bus. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 28 of Article IV of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of 2/3 of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to expand the scope of an existing crime within the jurisdiction of an inferior court.

This Act incorporates changes made by HS1 for HB204, which was passed by both chambers during the 151st General Assembly, but never enacted into law. It removes the exemption for private schools and youth camps that allows them to use a name-based, rather than a fingerprint-based, background check or choose not to do background checks at all for employees, contractors and volunteers. This Act also authorizes the Superintendent of State Police to promulgate regulations relating to re-use of a criminal background check. The State Bureau of Identification is also required to provide subsequent criminal history information to the agency receiving background check information. Authority is given to the Department of Education to pay the costs of background checks for its employees. The Act also creates a new § 309A in Title 31, in response to a request from the federal government that the statutory authorization/requirement for private school background checks be separated from the statutory authorization for state and local government authorities. The Act also makes some technical and clarifying changes to existing statutory language. The Act takes effect on July 1, 2026 and child-serving entities and private schools must comply with the requirements by September 1, 2026. This Substitute differs from the original HB47 in that the effective date is in 2026 rather than 2025.

Each year, the Department of Education (Department) publishes data regarding all Delaware public schools, currently known as School Performance Data Reports (reports). These reports are available on the Department’s website as the Delaware Report Card. This Act revises current law to correspond with and codify current Department practices regarding these reports as follows: • Changes the term “Education Profile” to “education-related data” to reflect the broad range of data that the Department publishes, in addition to the annual reports required under existing State and federal law. • Requires that there is a link to these reports on the school choice website. • Requires that these reports continue to include proficiency rates. In addition, this Act requires that the Department do all of the following: • Provide a link to these reports on the home page of the Department’s website. • Include a list of a career pathways offered at a high school in these reports. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual which includes revisions to clarify repetitive, confusing, or contradictory language.

This Act removes the time restriction that only allowed for certain teachers or specialists who were hired after August 9, 2023, to obtain additional experience credit for purposes of salary computation. This Act would allow for teachers or specialists hired before August 9, 2023, to qualify for the same experience credit for purposes of salary computation.