Rep. Kim Williams

School board members are currently required to engage both in financial responsibility training and a training to understand educational and legal issues about due process and special education. This Act will require that a school board president inform each new member of the board of the training obligation. A school board president must also send a letter by January 15 of every year to any school board member who has not fulfilled the training obligation by January 1 following that member’s election or appointment. The Act also makes the special education due process training requirement explicit in the Code for members of a charter school board of directors as well as members of a traditional or vocational technical district school board. This training is already required for charter schools by regulation.

This Act mandates that employees of institutions of higher education and students receive training in sexual assault prevention. Although the current law makes training available, it has not been required. This Act further changes the reporting period in which academic institutions must report information on campus sexual assaults from the calendar year to the academic year. Finally, this Act requires the DOJ to post the annual reports from the previous 5 years on its website and to include the aggregate data from the previous 5 years in each report so that data trends are easily identified.

This Act codifies the teacher academy pathways program that prepares students for careers in elementary and secondary education. Among other things, it requires the DOE to update and revise statewide standards and guidelines for teacher academies and provide technical assistance to local education agencies to meet those standards and guidelines. This Act further requires that teacher academies offer (1) value-added credits to students who have completed the credits required by the initial program of study; and (2) work-based immersion options. Finally, the DOE must publish an annual report summarizing each teacher academy program in the State, including the number of participants in the program and the number of participants who successfully transition to a program or institute of higher learning in the field of education.

This Act changes how the Insurance Commissioner and the State Treasurer provide for distributions from taxes collected by the Insurance Commissioner to be made to fire companies or departments in Delaware. The current method for reporting, calculating, and making distributions to fire companies or departments is complex to administer and can lead to incorrect payments. This Act simplifies the reporting process and provides a new method for calculating the funds distributed to fire departments and companies in the City of Wilmington, New Castle County outside of Wilmington, Kent County, and Sussex County. Specifically, it reduces the number of payments per year from two to one, gives the Insurance Commissioner more time to ensure the accuracy of insurer-reported financial data, and establishes detailed guidelines for how the funds should be distributed to the various fire companies or departments. This Act also makes changes to the reporting requirements related to payments made by the State Treasurer to the State Insurance Coverage Office. In addition, this Act amends the requirement related to the Delaware Volunteer Firefighter’s Association (“DVFA”) annual report to the Insurance Commissioner. This requirement is being amended because contrary to what the current statute states, the Insurance Commissioner does not use the report to calculate funding under this section. DVFA is now also required to send its annual report, which details the locations, apparatuses, and equipment maintained for its member fire companies or departments, to the State Fire Prevention Commission. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act is effective January 1, 2025.

This bill updates the current law relating to the Spay Neuter Fund and the administration of that fund to make it easier to administer the fund and animal population control programs. Changes have also been made to conform to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act is a substitute for House Bill 253. Like HB 253, it requires health insurance companies, including State employee/retiree health plans and Medicaid, to cover annual mammograms for the purpose of early detection for a woman 40 years of age or older, with or without referral from the woman’s health care provider. It also prohibits mammography facilities from requiring that women, 40 years of age or older, provide the facility with the name of a healthcare provider in order to receive an annual screening mammogram. This substitute differs from HB 253 by updating Title 18, Section 3552 of the Delaware for consistency with the rest of the bill. Specifically, it requires insurance carriers to provide coverage for annual mammograms for cancer screening beginning at age 40 rather than age 50 and prohibits carriers from requiring a referral for these annual mammograms.

Maddy summaryThis bill clarifies which courts have the authority to hear cases involving illegal speed exhibitions in Delaware. It designates the Court of Common Pleas as the primary court for these offenses, removing the previous ability for Justice of the Peace Courts to try them. However, the law allows a Superior Court to handle the case if the speed exhibition charge is combined with a more serious felony. This change ensures that lower courts do not process these specific violations unless they are part of a larger, more complex legal case.

House Bill No. 168 creates a short-term rental lodging tax at the rate of 8% of the rent upon every occupancy of a short-term rental within the State. For purposes of collecting the lodging tax on short-term rentals, HB 168 creates an occupational license for a short-term rental listing service. It also authorizes New Castle and Sussex Counties to impose a lodging tax of no more than 3 percent on short-term rentals. House Substitute 2 to House Bill No. 168 is primarily different from House Bill No. 168 in that it decreases the tax rate on short-term rentals and uses different terms and definitions to identify the individuals responsible for collecting short-term rental taxes. Specifically, House Substitute 2 to House Bill No. 168 makes the following changes: (1) Requires accommodations intermediaries to obtain an occupational license and pay an annual licensing fee of $25.00; (2) Ensures that accommodations intermediaries are responsible for the collection and remittance of taxes under this Act and clarifies responsibilities for the collection and remittance of the tax; (3) Defines an accommodations intermediary; (4) Decreases the short-term rental tax rate from 8% to 4.5%; (5) Establishes the short-term rental tax in a new chapter within Title 30; (6) Clarifies that short-term rental taxes will be distributed as follows: 62.5% to the State General Fund; 12.5% to the Beach Preservation Fund of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control; 12.5% to be designated in the proportion in which collected, to the duly established convention and visitors bureau in each county; and 12.5% to the Delaware Tourism Office; (7) Adds the Georgetown, Millsboro, Milton, Milford, and Western Sussex Chambers of Commerce to those organizations that determine the Sussex County Convention & Visitors Bureau; and (8) Updates effective dates for licensing, tax levy, and related obligations.

This Act makes several changes to the civil asset forfeiture proceedings of this state. It repeals the legal presumption that money, negotiable instruments or securities found in close proximity to controlled substances or records or with trace amounts of controlled substances are forfeitable. Such evidence is still admissible and may be considered by the Court in a forfeiture proceeding. It puts the burden of proof on the State to prove all elements of a forfeiture case by a preponderance of the evidence. Under the existing statute, it is the burden of an innocent owner to prove that they did not have knowledge of or consent to the use of their property in an unlawful act. It prohibits the forfeiture of currency less than $500. It prohibits forfeiture unless a criminal charge is brought. It requires the person holding seized property to be financially responsible for all fees associated therewith in the event the property is ordered by the Court to be returned. It allows a claimant property owner who substantially prevails in a forfeiture proceeding to recover reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The language in this section is modeled after a provision of the federal forfeiture statute, at 28 U.S.C. § 2465 that was put in place in 2000 as part of federal civil asset forfeiture reforms. It aligns forfeiture provisions in Title 11 with the forfeiture provisions in Title 16. It requires the Department of Justice to collect and annually report statistics regarding civil asset forfeiture.

This Act makes the crime of “patronizing a prostitute” a class E felony rather than a misdemeanor where the person from whom prostitution is sought is a minor.