This Act dissolves the Delaware Interagency Council on Homelessness (DICH). The DICH has been an important venue for significant progress in addressing homelessness in Delaware. However, changes to the primary source of federal assistance for resources for homelessness required the establishment of a Continuum of Care. The similar goals, tasks, and membership of the Continuum of Care have made the DICH obsolete and duplicative of these efforts. Delaware’s Continuum of Care was established in July 2015 and is charged with statewide coordination to address homelessness including the review system performance, identifying system gaps, and advancing solutions. It is a membership body with open membership to any who would like to participate and the membership elects the Continuum of Care Board. The Continuum of Care Board includes representation similar to that of the DICH: state agencies, local government, service providers, and advocates. Until the establishment of the Continuum of Care Governance Charter in 2015, the DICH was also responsible for many systems tasks that now must be completed by the Continuum of Care. There is significant overlap in membership between the DICH and the Continuum of Care and combined with the Continuum of Care’s responsibility for the tasks previously handled by the DICH, it is difficult to get a quorum at DICH meetings and it is not feasible or sensible to have 2 separate, active entities working on the same issues.
Sponsored bills
Under current law, a person may deposit, for a fee, an original will with the Register of Wills in New Castle County for safekeeping. The person is not required to be a resident of New Castle County, but only the New Castle County Register of Wills is authorized to store original wills. This Act expands current law to authorize the Register of Wills in Sussex County to similarly store original wills.
This Act restores the Delaware Prescription Drug Payment Assistance Program (“Program”), which was eliminated in the Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Appropriations Act. This Act replaces Senate Bill 148 and makes the following additional changes: (1) Delays implementation of the Act until January 1, 2019, to coordinate with the Medicare Part D benefit year to enable the Department of Health and Social Services (“Department”) to make necessary system changes. (2) Makes changes to the defined term “prescription drugs.” (3) Removes provisions required to be included in rules and regulations promulgated by the Department. (4) Adds provisions that may be included in rules and regulations promulgated by the Department. (5) Makes technical corrections to conform the provisions of the restored Program to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act provides the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association with the authority to establish fees for officiating. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This is a housekeeping bill to codify the existing practices with administering the Municipal Street Aid program.
This bill allows children under the age of 18 to be transferred to the Department of Corrections only after adjudication and an imposition of a sentence of incarceration. Currently, Delaware permits juveniles charged with adult offenses to be held in default of bail in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The trend nationwide is to hold juveniles charged with adult offenses in juvenile facilities pretrial as these facilities provide educational and rehabilitative programs.
This Act draws attention to the types of discipline used in schools by capturing data about out-of-school suspensions and publishing that data, in an effort to help schools identify areas where the data regarding out-of-school suspensions indicates there is room to reduce such suspensions. This Act is meant to increase transparency, improve overall school climate, resulting in improved student outcomes. The collection and publication of this data will also help the Department of Education and community partners identify opportunities to provide greater supports to schools, students, and their families. According to data provided by the Delaware Department of Education (“DOE”), thousands of Delaware students receive out-of-school suspensions each year for minor infractions, such as being unprepared or late for class, dress code violations, and disrespectful behavior. In 2013, only 2% of out-of-school suspensions were for serious offenses such as weapons, drugs, or serious violence. Out-of-school suspensions do not address the root causes for the misbehavior, and only serve to put the students further behind in class. Furthermore, DOE data shows that, in 2013, African-American students made up only 32% of the student body, but accounted for 62% of out-of-school suspension, and students with disabilities made up 13% of the student body, but accounted for 24% of out-of-school suspensions. Federal discipline guidance, developed jointly by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, instructs schools to commit to regular evaluation of school discipline policies and practices, and monitor progress toward the schools’ climate and discipline goals. The federal process requires schools to collect and publicly report disaggregated student discipline data and solicit feedback from students, staff, families, and community representatives. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the guidelines of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute Bill makes the following changes to Senate Bill No. 85: 1. References the existing definition of "disruptive behavior" in Title 14. 2. Includes "disability" as a category for data collection. 3. Extends by 1 year the years stated in the requirements to retain the same time frames. This is necessary because this Act will be enacted in 2018, not 2017 when it was drafted. 4. Clarifies what information is required for reports and provides deadlines for the required plans and reports. 5. Clarifies that schools must develop plans and strategies with stakeholder input. 6. Clarifies content for professional development.
In 2017, HB 114 raised the minimum bodily injury and property damage liability limits set forth at 21 Del. C. § 2902(b)(2) from $15,000/$30,000/$5,000 to $25,000/$50,000/$10,000. However, HB 114 did not address the issue of combined single limits, and did not change the definition of “proof of financial responsibility” in the definitions section of Title 21. The purpose of this bill is to resolve the statutory conflict that was created when HB 114 was passed in 2017.
This Act redefines “resident” to mean one who is legally domiciled in the State for 10 years immediately preceding October of the pretax year. This change means that one must be domiciled in the State for 10 years before one who is over the age of 65 can receive the exemption from real estate taxes provided by Subchapter II, Chapter 81, Title 9 of the Delaware Code. This change is consistent with a similar change made to the residency requirements of those who are over the age of 65 and claiming a tax credit against school taxes (See House Bill No. 99, as amended, from the 149th General Assembly; Chapter 71, Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware). This Act also corrects language in the definition of “income.” This language operates to reference income information that is a year old at the time provided. Removing this language will mean income information for the most recent federal and state income tax years is provided. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Birth control use is nearly universal among women of reproductive age in the United States and is a key part of preventative health care for women. Access to birth control provides health benefits for women and children, improves women's ability to control whether and when they have a child, and fosters women's ability to participate in education and the workforce. However, the cost of birth control, particularly the higher up-front costs of the more effective, longer-acting birth control methods, is often a barrier to women accessing the birth control they need. This Act codifies the current federal requirement that health insurance plans include coverage for contraceptives and applies this requirement to individual, group, State employee, and public assistance plans. This Act retains the current ability for religious employers to exclude coverage for the insertion and removal and medically necessary examination associated with the use of FDA-approved drugs or devices.