Rep. Kim Williams

This Act makes changes to the operating requirements for the Delaware Anti-Trafficking Action Council. It reduces the members required for quorum from 13 to 10. Since the quorum requirement has been reduced to less than a majority of the Council, the bill also specifies that the Council may generally take action upon the vote of a majority of members present at a meeting, but that a majority vote of the Council members is required to approve the appointment of an Executive Director. Consistent with current practice, the Executive Director has the authority to hire staff and contract for services within the limits of available funds. The Act also revises the reporting on funds spent to be part of the annual report and include state, federal, or other funding received by the Council other than State-funded positions. At the present time, the Council does not receive state funding other than allocated personnel positions. Finally, the Act allows the Council to have a virtual meeting with a physical location open to the public (anchor location) so long as a staff member of the Council is present at the anchor location. Without this authorization, a member of the Council would be required to attend at the anchor location in order to comply with the State’s open meeting rules.

This Act provides that commissioned constables have the authority to direct traffic, if they are doing so while in the performance of the lawful duties of employment. In addition to explicitly granting constables this power under § 5609 of Title 24, the Act adds constables to the list in § 4103 of Title 21 of persons invested by law with the authority to direct, control, or regulate vehicle and pedestrian traffic. These changes will enable constables to provide additional public safety support to employers such as schools, which may benefit from assistance with directing traffic during busy times of day such as pickup and drop off. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act aligns state special education law with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and its implementing regulations, and also clarifies that a parent’s representative may obtain copies of a student’s special education records.

This House Concurrent Resolution recognizes April 2025 as “Autism Acceptance and Inclusion Month” and Autism Delaware's years of service to the people of Delaware.

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.

Currently, the Delaware Educator Apprenticeship Progam offers teacher apprenticeships to aspiring educators in Delaware. This Act expands the Delaware Educator Apprenticeship Program to include paraprofessional apprenticeships (paraprofessional registered occupation programs) and registered youth apprenticeship programs that begin in high school. Under this Act, the DOE will work with the DOL to create at least 1 paraprofessional registered occupation pilot program for the 2025-2026 school year. To that end, the DOE, in partnership with the DOL, must apply for State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula Grants, both formula and competitive funding, for the 2025-2026 school year, along with any other available state or federal funding.

This Concurrent Resolution designates the week of February 24-February 28, “PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEEK” and commends the hard work of educators and staff. It also calls upon Delawareans to support public schools.

Maddy summaryHCR 4 is a symbolic resolution recognizing January 2025 as "Human Trafficking Awareness Month" in Delaware. It does not create new laws or allocate funds but aims to raise public awareness about human trafficking through statewide educational efforts. The resolution references Delaware-specific data, including 269 identified trafficking cases and 611 victims reported via Delaware's hotline in fiscal year 2024. It aligns with ongoing work by Delaware's Anti-Trafficking Action Council (DATAC) to coordinate community responses. This resolution directly affects Delaware residents by designating a month for community education on trafficking prevention and victim support.

The Public Education Funding Commission was first established under Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 201 of the 152nd General Assembly. This Concurrent Resolution re-establishes the Commission to continue its comprehensive review of public education funding for all students and populations served by district and charter schools, develop a roadmap of recommendations to implement improvements to the public education funding system, and serve as an ongoing body to review the funding annually and recommend updates and changes. The Commission will issue its first recommendations by October 1, 2025, and its final recommendations by July 1, 2026.

This Substitute bill differs from House Bill No. 252 by placing the Delaware Institute of Higher Education year-long teacher residency program under Section 1312 of Title 14 rather than Section 1305.This Substitute bill grants graduates of the Delaware Institute of Higher Education teacher-residency program 1 year of experience credit in addition to any other experience granted under Section 1312. The goal of this Act is to incentivize a new graduate who has completed the year-long Delaware residency program to stay and teach in Delaware by elevating their starting pay grade level by giving them 1 year of experience credit.