Rep. Eric Morrison

A 2019 study found the following: (1) Black women are 80% more likely to change their natural hair to meet social norms or expectations at work. (2) Black women are 50% more likely to be sent home or know of another Black woman sent home from work because of her hair. (3) Black women are 30% more likely to be made aware of a formal workplace appearance policy. Delaware law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in a variety of settings. This Act makes clear that race also includes traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and a protective hairstyle, which includes braids, locks, and twists. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This bill requires all public and charter schools which have students in grades 6-12 to provide free feminine hygiene products in 50% of the bathrooms used by students who can have a menstrual cycle. This bill also requires schools to publish on its website and post in its common areas the locations of the bathrooms where the hygiene products are provided. Finally, this bill provides that each school must consult with its school nurse regarding the products to be provided.

Delaware, like the rest of the country and the world, has been struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic since March of 2020. The worst outbreaks have occurred in facilities where people live and/or work in tight communal settings – long-term care facilities, prisons, and meat processing plants. There is no real way to prevent an outbreak and the spread of a highly contagious disease inside a prison where inmates share cells, communal recreation and dining spaces, and in some instances reside in large bunk rooms. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the operations of the prisons as they struggle with staff shortages due to illness and quarantines, and curtail activities to reduce opportunities for community spread within the prison. This bill seeks to address both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as any future public health emergency that impacts prison operations and conditions by creating a “public health emergency credit” that would automatically be awarded when a public health emergency is declared. Credits would be awarded at the rate of 6 months for every month served during the public health emergency up to a maximum reduction in sentence of 1 year. This has the practical effect of moving forward release dates for inmates whose release would come within the next year regardless of the emergency. This will reduce the prison population in an orderly and fair manner, relieving pressure on staff and creating better conditions for those inmates who remain incarcerated to socially distance and control the spread of infectious disease. By applying additional credit towards sentence completion, this legislation also recognizes that the conditions of confinement during a public health emergency like the current one can be considered significantly more punishing – since visitation, communications, programming, and recreation are all significantly negatively impacted by the emergency conditions and modifications to operations.

This Resolution recognizes April 2021 as "Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month" in the State of Delaware.

Dysautonomia is a group of medical conditions that result in a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for “automatic” bodily functions such as respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, temperature control, and more. This Resolution proclaims October 2021 "Dysautonomia Awareness Month" in the State of Delaware.

Current Delaware regulations provide that transportation benefits must be provided for students in grades K through 6 who live 1 or more miles from the schools to which district administrators would normally assign them. In grades 7 through 12, the same students are entitled to transportation benefits if they live 2 or more miles from their assigned public schools. See 14 Del. Admin. C. § 1150-12.1. This Act expands transportation benefits to students in grades 7 and 8 who live 1 or more miles from the public schools to which district administrators would normally assign them. This Act takes effect upon enactment and allows immediate implementation while also providing schools until September 1, 2023, to implement. In addition, this Act does the following: - Amends the section header for § 2905, Title 14 to more accurately reflect the section’s subject matter. - Clarifies the Department of Education’s authority to promulgate rules and regulations regarding the transportation of students who are in public elementary and secondary schools. Section 2905 already expressly grants promulgation authority to the Department regarding nonpublic, nonprofit schools. - Clarifies that the new provision of transportation benefits for students in grades K through 8 applies only to students who attend the public school in which their enrollment is based on the residences of their parents; it does not apply to students who attend charter schools or, by choice, schools in different districts. - Makes several technical changes to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including changes to consistently refer to “students” instead of using both “students” and “pupils” within the same section.

This resolution recognizes the importance of providing effective counsel to all who are accused, commends the important role played by the Office of Defense Services in fulfilling that mission, and recognizes March 18 as National Public Defense Day.

This Act requires each school district and charter school to establish and implement a curriculum on Black History for students in grades K through 12. This Act incorporates contemporary events into discussions of Black History and the tools of experience.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes November 2021 as "Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month" in the State of Delaware.

This act clarifies that the University of Delaware, like other institutes of higher learning including Delaware State University and Delaware Technical and Community College, must comply with the terms of the Prevailing Wage Law for projects secured under the State Procurement Act. This Act ensures that laborers and trade unions working on public work projects at or for the University of Delaware enjoy the same protections of the Prevailing Wage Law as they would on any other project governed by the SPA. The bill is curtailed such that it will only apply to the University’s designation as a “state agency” for the limited purpose of the application of the Prevailing Wage Law, and does not otherwise expand or limit the entity’s duties and liabilities under any other governing statute. This Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including to ensure the consistency of language throughout the provisions included in this Act.