This Act, known as the Delaware Climate Change Solutions Act of 2023, follows the issuance of Delaware’s Climate Action Plan in 2021, and establishes a statutory target of greenhouse gas emissions reductions over the medium and long term to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on the State. The Act establishes a process of regular updates to the Climate Action Plan to serve as the framework to achieve the targeted emissions reductions and develop resilience strategies for the State, creates Climate Change Officers in certain Key Cabinet-Level Departments who will assist DNREC in the ongoing implementation of the Climate Action Plan, requires State agencies to consider climate change in decision-making, rulemaking, and procurement, and requires an Implementation Report every 2 years on the progress of the State towards meeting the statutory targets.
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The bill adds visual impairments including blindness to the list of programs to be conducted on a 12-month schedule.
This Act creates a special license plate for retired state legislators. This Act shall be known as "The Senator Margaret Rose Henry Act".
This Act requires every public school and charter school to provide students enrolled in kindergarten with an oral health screening by the last student attendance day of each school year. Notification to the parent or guardian must be done and a copy of the oral health screening results sent home. A referral to a dentist, if required, will be provided by the Bureau of Oral Health and Dental Services. The Division of Public Health (DPH), through the Delaware Smile Check Program, offers school-based oral screenings, at no cost to the school districts, schools, including charter schools, or the students. This Substitute Bill takes out the requirement to advise teachers of the results of the oral health screenings, including Special Education Coordinators and Educational Diagnosticians of students with an IEP. This Substitute Bill also removes any follow-up requirements, by the school, with the student’s parent or guardian. The Substitute Bill also makes the school requirements, under this Act, contingent on the Delaware Smile Check Program remaining in effect or a comparable program to provide free oral health screenings to all enrolled kindergarten students. This Act takes effect for the 2024-2025 school year.
Substance use disorder constitutes a severe threat to the health and welfare of the citizens of Delaware. Recovery residences address the needs of individuals in recovery from substance use disorder by providing a safe and healthy living environment and a community of supportive recovering peers to which residents are accountable. Recovery residences support the recovery of individuals with substance use disorder and help prevent relapse, criminal justice system involvement, and overdose. Ensuring the certification of recovery residences according to nationally recognized evidence-based standards protects residents and communities from the harm caused by poorly managed or fraudulent recovery residences. This Act institutes a voluntary certification process for recovery residences under standards and procedures that uphold evidence-based best practices and support a safe, healthy, and effective recovery environment. This Act establishes residents' rights of a recovery residence and protects residents against unreasonable and unfair practices in setting and collecting fees and other residence payments. This Act provides training and technical assistance for recovery residence operators and staff. This Act enables the data collection needed to study the effectiveness of Delaware’s recovery residences. This Act also excludes a certified recovery house admission agreement from the provisions of the Landlord-Tenant Code.
This bill clarifies and confirms that utilities and farm customers may enter into contracts, such as power supply agreements, that specify how Excess kWh Credits will be applied at the end of an annual billing period.
Teachers and other school employees (school employees) do not accrue annual leave that can be used on a flexible basis. Under current law, school employees may only use 3 days of sick leave for personal reasons and may be absent for 5 days after the death of an immediate family member and for 1 day only, on the day of the funeral, after the death of a near relative. This Act makes the following changes to the days that school employees may be absent without loss of pay: 1. Allows a school employee to use the 1 day of leave provided for the funeral of a near relative on the day before or the day after the funeral. 2. Increases the number of days of sick leave that a school employee can use for personal reasons from 3 to 5. 3. Provides that a chief school officer may not ask a school employee the reason they are requesting to be absent for personal reasons and can only deny the school employee's request because of operational requirements. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including all of the following: 1. Clarifies the definition of “immediate family”. 2. Corrects an internal reference in subsection (j) that has been incorrect since 1971 when the language regarding excused absences by employees of special school districts, the City of Wilmington, and the State Board of Education in subsection (g) was repealed and the current requirements for the payment of unused sick leave were first enacted. Finally, Sections 2 through 4 of this Act provide that if House Bill No. 65 is enacted in 2023, school employees will receive the same bereavement leave as state employees after a pregnancy loss. If HB 65 is not enacted in 2023, these changes will not take effect.
This bill establishes the Delaware Rare Disease Advisory Council which, among other things, is intended to educate medical professionals, government agencies, legislators, and the public about rare diseases. There are about 7,000 known rare diseases, and they create major public health challenges. The Advisory Council is charged with engaging in activities intended to benefit rare disease patients in Delaware, including encouraging and securing funding for the development of new treatments for rare diseases.
To prevent Delawareans from facing exorbitant costs for potentially life-saving screenings and follow-up tests, and to allow providers to use clinical judgement in the use of breast cancer examination tools based on established national standards, this Act requires that all insurance policies issued or renewed in this State include coverage of supplemental and diagnostic breast examinations on terms that are at least as favorable as the coverage of annual screening mammograms. The Act covers all group, blanket, and individual health insurance policies (except specified accident, specified disease, hospital indemnity, Medicare supplement, long-term care or other limited benefit health insurance policies) as well as the State employee healthcare plan and Medicaid. This substitute bill differs from the original bill in that it makes technical corrections, excludes certain health, and adds to the definition of breast MRI.
This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 1. Like Senate Bill No. 1, this Act creates a right to representation for tenants in evictions and other landlord-tenant actions. The disruptive displacement that accompanies eviction proceedings creates significant costs for state and local government related to shelter funding, education funding, health care provided in hospitals instead of community-based providers, transportation costs for homeless youth, and foster care. Evictions and disruptive displacement also have significant, well-documented, and long-lasting effects on the lives of individuals and families, including poorer physical and mental health, increased risk of homelessness, increased risk of employment loss, loss of personal property, damage to credit standing, and relocation into substandard housing. Further, evictions fall disproportionately on Black and Latinx families, who have also been the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis. Section 1 of this Act establishes a right to representation for evictions and other landlord-tenant actions for covered individuals with household incomes below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. The Attorney General shall contract with legal services providers for the provision of representation in proceedings covered by this Act. The Right to Representation Coordinator will manage the contracts and work with community organizations to do outreach and education regarding the right to representation. Section 1 of this Act requires landlords to provide notice of the right to representation at periodic designated intervals in the tenancy and in eviction proceedings. Section 2 of this Act authorizes the creation of a residential eviction diversion program modeled after the Superior Court’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program. Section 3 of this Act is a severability clause. Section 4 of this Act makes Sections 1 and 6 effective 120 days after the Act's enactment. Section 5 of this Act makes Section 2 of this Act contingent on funding. Section 6 requires the Coordinator to provide the General Assembly with a copy of the first annual report required under § 5605 of Title 25, as contained in this Act, to determine if additional funding is needed to address the fiscal impact of the Act on the Justice of the Peace Court. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 1 as it does all of the following: (1) Removes a judicial or administrative proceeding to remedy a violation of law related to security deposit from the list of proceedings included in a covered proceeding. (2) Replaces “covered individual” with “tenant” in the provision determining a tenant’s eligibility to be a covered individual. (3) Makes clear that a covered individual’s household income is to be determined over the immediately preceding 12 months. (4) Makes clear how to determine household income for a full-time student. (5) Tabulates the list of notices provided by a landlord that trigger a covered individual’s receipt of legal representation and further clarifies the notice related to termination of a rental agreement. (6) Provides that a designated organization may decline representation if an attorney deems the covered individual’s defense to lack merit, in addition to a determination by the attorney that an appeal lacks merit. (7) Provides that a covered individual is entitled to receive legal representation as soon as practicable after the initiation of a covered proceeding, rather than just an eviction proceeding. (8) Removes the requirement that a court, at a covered individual’s first appearance in a covered proceeding, provide a covered individual with notice of the individual’s right to, and the availability of, legal representation under this Act. This notice is intended to be provided earlier by the Right to Representation Coordinator (“Coordinator”). (9) Requires that events planned for, and information distributed to, tenants also be made available to landlords and property managers. (10) Requires that the Coordinator include a full accounting of their expenditures as part of the required annual report. (11) Provides that the Coordinator is to prepare information explaining legal representation available to tenants, provides that the information is known as “informational materials”, requires the Coordinator to prepare the informational materials in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, and clarifies the events that require the informational materials to be provided to a tenant. (12) Clarifies the date from which actions are to be taken by the Coordinator and the Justice of the Peace Courts. (13) Makes clear that the provision of legal representation to a covered individual under Section 1 of this Act is not intended to be the sole basis for a continuance of a covered proceeding scheduled before the effective date of Section 1 of this Act for a hearing on or after the effective date of Section 1 of this Act. (14) Provides that the residential eviction diversion program includes an initial mediation conference rather than a conciliation conference. (15) Makes technical corrections, including to use the defined term “rental agreement” instead of “lease” and to insert “Delaware” before “Supreme Court” for clarity.