This Act makes the Delaware equal accommodation law internally consistent, correctly organized, and aligned with the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). This Act corrects the potential for confusion in Chapter 45 of Title 6 in the following ways: 1. The current law states that the purpose of Chapter 45 is to prohibit discrimination based upon physical disability but Chapter 45 actually prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental disabilities. This Act corrects the purpose language in § 4501 of Title 6 by changing the term "physical disability" to "disability" so that it accurately states the scope of the protection provided by of Chapter 45. 2. The current law uses the term "support animal" while the ADA and other states use the term "service animal." This Act replaces the term "support animal" with "service animal" to use the same term as the ADA. 3. The current law defines "support animal" as assisting only individuals with physical disabilities and does not address service animals that assist individuals with nonphysical disabilities, even though Chapter 45 prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental impairments. This Act uses the ADA definition of service animal, which requires that the dog be trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. 4. The current law places the prohibition against discriminating against an individual with a support animal in the definition section rather than in the prohibited practices section. This Act moves the requirement that a service animal be permitted to accompany an individual with a disability in public places from the definition of disability to the statute that lists unlawful practices. With these corrections, this Act restructures and corrects the language in Chapter 45 of Title 6 so that it is consistent with the ADA and clear that an individual with any disability, including an individual with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or other psychiatric, intellectual, or mental disability, may be accompanied by a service animal in a public place. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
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The Department of Corrections sometimes has difficulty tracking sex offenders coming out of prison because overly restrictive local ordinances can severely restrict the availability of appropriate housing. Homeless sex offenders are less likely to comply with registration requirements and are less able to access required treatment and comply with other supervision conditions. This may contribute to recidivism and detract from public safety. This bill restricts the power of municipalities to impose broader residency and proximity restrictions on sex offenders than those that apply under state law. Specifically, 11 Del. C. 112, prohibits sex offenders from residing or loitering within 500 feet of school property.
This Act requires that feminine hygiene products be provided free of charge to individuals in custody at facilities operated by the Department of Correction and facilities operated by the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This legislation makes two minor modifications to Delaware’s background check process for prospective employees and volunteers at child-serving entities. It: 1) clarifies that an employer who must first obtain a signed authorization from the prospective employee for a Child Protection Registry Check, must attach that authorization to the request for the Registry check; and 2) only those persons currently on the Child Protection Registry may impact an employer’s decision whether to hire a person who is not otherwise expressly excluded from employment.
This Act encourages prescribers and patients to use proven non-opioid methods of treating back pain by doing the following: 1. Prohibits numerical limits on physical therapy and chiropractic care, which might deter prescribers or patients from using those treatments rather than opioids. 2. Adds continuing education requirements for prescribers relating to risks of opioids and alternatives to opioids. 3. Creates a pilot program within the state employee health care plan that allows the use of massage therapy, acupuncture, and yoga for the treatment of back pain.
House Substitute No. 1 for House Bill 440 differs from House Bill 440 only in that it locates the Overdose System of Care and the Overdose System of Care Committee in Chapter 97 of Title 16 instead of in Chapter 10 of Title 16. House Substitute No. 1 for House Bill 440 establishes an overdose system of care to improve care, treatment, and survival of the overdose patient in State of Delaware. This Act allows the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services to establish stabilization centers that can receive overdose patients from Emergency Medical Services and designate acute health care facilities, freestanding emergency departments, and hospitals that meet established requirements as an overdose system of care centers. This Act also establishes a standing Overdose System of Care Committee to assist in the oversight of the overdose system of care and provide recommendations for its implementation and maintenance.
Far too many Delawareans have been personally affected by addiction and substance use disorder and have experienced the tragedy of watching loved ones suffer from this chronic disease. Nearly 2,000 individuals in Delaware suffered a non-fatal overdose in 2017, but data suggest that many of these individuals continued to be prescribed opioid pain medications or did not receive substance use disorder treatment. This Act links specific patient care data related to overdose collected by the Office of Emergency Medical Services or the Office of the State Epidemiologist with data in the Delaware Prescription Monitoring Program (“PMP”). This Act will foster best practices in the use of health information, to ensure that consistent, humane, evidence-based treatment and care is available and provided to those suffering from substance use disorder or non-fatal overdose. Linking this data may assist prescribers and pharmacists in the identification of substance use disorder and promote safer prescribing. This Act also provides prescriber and dispenser identified data to the PMP Advisory Committee and the Addiction Action Committee, which will enable these committees to do the following: 1. Appropriately identify prescribing and dispensing patterns of concern. 2. Make recommendations to the PMP administrator. 3. Provide targeted education to those individuals whose prescribing or dispensing practices are outliers from the Delaware average. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act establishes the High Needs Educator Student Loan Payment Program. The Program allows qualified applicants to apply for a payment from the State to the applicant’s lending agency, to pay a portion of the applicant’s student loan debt. The purpose of the Program is to encourage Educators to work and remain working in certification areas in which Delaware has a shortage and to encourage Educators to work and remain working in Delaware’s hardest-to-staff Schools. The amount of the award shall be no less than $1000 and no more than $2000. This substitute redesignates the chapter where this language will be placed in the code.
Since 1973, § 9605(b) of Title 9 of the Delaware Code (“§ 9605”) has prohibited the recordation of instruments that restrict the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to or by any person because of the person’s race, color, creed, sex, national origin, or ancestry. This Act provides a mechanism for owners of real property subject to an instrument that contains a provision that restricts property rights based on the list of characteristics included in § 9605, including the governing documents of a common interest community, to redact and strike the unlawful restrictive covenant language from instruments recorded with a county recorder of deeds before the original enactment of § 9605 or in violation of § 9605. This Act also amends the list of characteristics included in § 9605 that may not be used to discriminate in the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to make it consistent with Delaware’s fair housing laws. However, this Act makes clear that provisions that are permitted by the exceptions to the Delaware Fair Housing Act are not prohibited from being recorded by a recorder of deeds. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
The 146th General Assembly gave the Department of Health and Social Services the authority to promulgate regulations and require accreditation for facilities that perform invasive medical procedures. The current terminology and definition of an “invasive medical procedure” has been frequently misinterpreted and caused a great deal of confusion in the medical community. This Act revises the current language to be consistent with terminology used by accreditation organizations and other states, replacing the term “invasive medical procedure” with the term “office-based surgery”. In addition, this Act clarifies the definition to ensure that all facilities that perform such procedures do so in a safe and sanitary environment. Finally, this Act adds a requirement that the approved accreditation organizations shall report, at a minimum, findings of surveys and complaint and incident investigations, and data for all office-based surgical facilities to the Department. This Act also updates Title 24 where the term "invasive medical procedure" is used and § 122(3) of Title 16 is referenced.