Rep. Ed Osienski

This Act provides mandatory expungement eligibility to individuals who were convicted of the possession, use or consumption of marijuana prior to Delaware’s decriminalization of these offenses. To be eligible for the mandatory expungement, the marijuana conviction must be the applicant’s only criminal conviction.

This Act implements the recommendations of the March 2105 Autism Educational Task Force report regarding § 1332 of Title 14, the Program for Children with Autism and its Special Staff. Enacted nearly three decades ago, this law established a network of educational programs initially within a separate school structure known as The Delaware Autism Program (DAP). Today, this network continues as a combination of both separate school programs and within local school district support services. However, the current model does not reflect current practices in special education, especially regarding inclusive education, and parents’ desire to have their children educated in their local communities. In addition, the increase in students with an educational classification of autism spectrum disorder (“ASD”) has made it difficult for the Statewide Director to provide the level of services and support that once was offered. This Act establishes the qualifications and duties of the Statewide Director and enhances the current mandatory committee structure to include a Parent Advisory Committee, in addition to the Peer Review Committee and Statewide Monitoring Review Board, to increase family input, monitoring, and protections. This Act creates a 3 year pilot program that revises the concept of DAP toward a system in which the statewide Director will work in collaboration with a team of experts to provide technical assistance and training to districts and educational entities. It allows for and provides adequate resources for all students with ASD in Delaware by eliminating the distinction between DAP-approved programs and other in-district options and by providing in-state experts at a lower cost than out-of-state residential treatment and consultants. The pilot program created under this Act makes changes that recognize and support the need for specialized technical assistance and training staff to be available to build capacity for teachers in all districts and other programs educating students with ASD. These changes expand available supports so that excellent, evidence-based training and technical assistance can be made available to all Delaware schools and the students who attend them. The pilot program created under this Act establishes a technical assistance team of educational autism specialists numbering a ratio of 1 for every 100 students (currently estimated at 15 positions). The fiscal mechanism to support the pilot program will be accomplished through mandated district participation that is consistent with the current needs-based funding system in Delaware and by redirecting state spending towards lower cost, community-based supports from out-of-state residential placements. The number of training specialists will be phased in over several years or until the pilot program ends. Finally, this Act is known as "The Alex Eldreth Autism Education Law" in memory Alex Eldreth, who passed away unexpectedly on November 24, 2017, and his dedication to this work.

This bill will increase the public transparency of education funding information by directing the Department of Education to: 1. Establish, in collaboration with stakeholders, a statewide approach for districts and charter schools for reporting expenditures at the school level and the school’s share of central office expenditures so that per-pupil expenditure data is consistent and comparable across the State. 2. Report per-pupil expenditure data with key information that provide context on differences in funding such as school type, student demographics, and student outcomes. 3. Provide optional trainings to increase understanding of the data. As a result, this bill is intended to enable all taxpayers, parents, and schools to understand their school spending and resources in order to make data-driven decisions for students.

This Act makes a technical correction to SB 169 by changing the designations of the new statutes and incorporates Senate Amendment No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 169.

This bill adds glaucoma, chronic debilitating migraines, pediatric autism spectrum disorder, pediatric sensory processing disorder to the list of debilitating medical conditions which may qualify a person, upon certification by a physician, to be eligible for the use of medical marijuana in accordance with the terms of the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act.

Cybersecurity attacks, including data breaches, corporate theft, and sabotage perpetrated by state and non-state actors throughout the world present unique threats to Delaware residents, governments, businesses, and critical infrastructure. Statewide coordination is required to effectively ensure cybersecurity protection. Cyber-attacks have increased significantly, providing evidence that information security must be strengthened to guard against threats. The State must leverage every partnership and mechanism available to combat the growing number of cyber-attacks and breaches. Trends show attacks growing by 64% annually. 84% of organizations have experienced cyber-attacks in the last 12 months. This bill strengthens Delaware’s defenses by facilitating multi-industry coordination among critical sectors such as communications, emergency services, energy, financial services, healthcare, water, and government. The primary objectives of the Council will be to focus on sharing and analyzing cyber threat intelligence in a collaborative manner.

This Act includes “emergency medical technicians” within the definition of employee under the County/Municipal Police/Firefighter Pension Plan.

This Act creates Pay for Success contracts. A Pay for Success contract is an agreement between a State agency and either a program intermediary or an investor under which an investor will provide upfront capital to fund a service, program, or economic development initiative. The State agency agrees to repay the program intermediary or investor if the service, program, or economic development initiative meets the performance measures and outcomes agreed to in the contract. An independent evaluator will determine if the performance measures and outcomes are met. If the State agency contracts with a program intermediary, the program intermediary will manage all aspects of the project, including identifying the investor and the entity or entities that will provide the service, program, or economic development initiative. In other situations, a State agency will contract directly with the investor, who will contract directly with the entity or entities that will provide the service, program, or economic development initiative.

This Act makes the following changes to the large public works contract procedures in subsection (c) and (d) of § 6962 of Title 29 for all State agencies: 1. Changes the requirement for the prequalification process so that submissions must contain performance reviews for previously awarded public works or private sector construction projects within the last 5 years instead of the last 10 years. 2. When an agency elects to award on the basis of best value, the maximum weight that can be assigned to the schedule is reduced from 30% to 20%. 3. When an agency elects to award on the basis of best value, performance is added as an objective criteria and must be given weight of at least 10% but no more than 20%. 4. Performance criterion is based on the contractor's performance rating, as determined under the agency's regulations. This Act makes the following changes to the large public works contract procedures in subsection § 6962(c) of Title 29 for only Department of Transportation projects: 1. Adds a bidder prequalification requirement to projects other than Community Transportation Fund and municipal street aid contracts, so that the only contractors eligible to bid on projects are contractors that either meet or exceed the minimum contractor's performance rating or that will permit the Department to retain 10% of the payments to be made to the contractor. 2. Creates a stakeholder panel to advise the Department of Transportation on the content of the performance-based rating system regulations. Because the stakeholder panel only exists when the performance-based rating system regulations are promulgated or being revised, the stakeholder panel is codified in the Laws of Delaware instead of the Delaware Code. This Act takes on January 1, 2019, or when the required regulations are promulgated, whichever occurs first. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act adds the requirement that vehicles stop at railroad signals for all on-track equipment. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.