This Act ensures that all female inmates in DDOC custody, at level IV or V, receive annual or biennial screening mammograms as recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force.
This Act adds "victim of kidnapping" to the definition section of the Address Confidentiality Act, allowing for kidnapping victims to become eligible for the protections offered by the Address Confidentiality Program. This amendment is recommended and supported by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to better protect kidnapping victims and their families. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Maddy summaryHB 279 updates Delaware state law to grant school employees up to five days of bereavement leave, aligning their benefits with those already available to state employees. This change ensures that teachers and other school staff receive the same time off to handle family deaths as their counterparts in the state workforce. The legislation was passed by both the House and Senate and was signed into law by the Governor in August 2024.
This Act removes the sunset provision in Chapter 453, Volume 83 of the Laws of Delaware relating to the program established under §9011A of Title 29 to assist individuals who are in or have experienced foster care in Delaware with driver education, driver licensing, and motor vehicle insurance and associated barriers and costs. The Act also amends §9011A of Title 29 to clarify the scope and administration of the program, and amends the definition of “youth in foster care” under §3921 of Title 18 to maintain consistency with 29 Del. C. §9011A(g)(1).
This Act increases the civil penalties for violations of the statutes in Title 16, Chapter 11 related to Long Term Care Facilities and the regulations adopted pursuant to it. For violations that the Department determines pose a serious threat to the health and safety of a resident, the minimum penalty in Section 1109 of Title 16 is increased from $1,000 per violation to $2,000, and the maximum penalty is increased from $10,000 to $20,000 per violation. Each day of a continuing violation constitutes a separate violation. For violations that do not constitute a serious threat to the health and safety of a resident, the maximum penalty is increased from $5,000 to $10,000 per violation. The civil penalties in Section 1109(a)(2) for violations that pose a serious threat to the health and safety of a resident were established in 1998 and have not been increased since then. The maximum civil penalty in Section 1109(c) for violations that do not constitute a serious threat to the health and safety of a resident was set at $10,000 in 1998, but was later reduced to $5,000 in 2000, and has not been increased since then. This Act also repeals the provision which places a cap on the civil penalties for continuing violations.
Maddy summaryThis bill updates Delaware's rules for inspecting long-term care facilities, requiring the Department of Health and Social Services to examine each facility at least once every 15 months. To maintain a statewide average inspection frequency of every 12 months, the department can charge extra fees to cover the costs of additional inspections needed when violations are found. Inspectors have the authority to enter facilities without prior notice, interview residents and staff, review records, and verify that previous issues have been fixed. The law also prohibits former employees or relatives of facility staff from participating in inspections of their former or current workplaces to ensure impartiality.
This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 150. Like Senate Bill No. 150, this Act requires included facilities have sufficient staff to meet the needs of each resident and requires dementia care services training for staff. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 150 in the following ways: (1) it removes the definition of activity services; (2) it defines direct care, secured memory care unit, and memory care services; (3) it requires that assisted living facilities providing dementia care services to residents in a secured memory care unit create a staffing plan that ensures the facility has sufficient staff to meet the scheduled, reasonably foreseeable unscheduled, and evolving needs of residents and; (4) it charges the Department of Health and Social Services with reviewing the staffing plan during each annual inspection and during any other inspection in which the Department deems it relevant; (5) it revises initial dementia care services training requirement by limiting the requirement to individuals that provide care in a secured memory care unit of an assisted living facility, creating separate training requirements, both in terms of duration and content, for individuals that provide direct care and non-direct care to residents receiving dementia care services in secured memory care units of assisted living facilities; (6) it revises the annual dementia care services training requirement to mirror initial dementia services training requirements; (7) it establishes dementia care services training requirements for individuals employed by temporary staffing agencies; (8) it gives the Department of Health and Social Services the discretion to accept other required dementia care services training to satisfy the dementia care services training requirements; (9) it details the transferability of training between facilities and temporary staffing agencies; and (10) it narrows the scope from all long-term care facilities to only assisted living facilities.
This bill modifies the Delaware Commission of Veterans’ Affairs employee requirements to make the Executive Director an exempt position, and to allow the hiring of non-veteran employees when needed. This will positively impact veteran families by reducing the wait for interment in state veterans’ cemeteries. These changes also make technical corrections and clarify the commission’s authority to accredit claims representatives to support veterans in accessing their earned benefits.
The United States Space Force was established on December 20, 2019 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. The Space Force became the 6th branch of the United States Armed Forces. This Act inserts the Space Force in those sections of the Delaware Code where the other 5 branches of the armed forces are specifically enumerated This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
The United States Department of Agriculture runs a voluntary program that provides risk management coverage to dairy producers that pays out based on the difference between the national price of milk and the average cost of feed. This Act enables the Delaware Department of Agriculture, subject to the availability of funding, to reimburse eligible dairy operators in the state for the cost of the premium to enroll in the USDA program.
