Rep. Eric Morrison

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.

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.

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.

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.

This Act creates certain uniform, minimum requirements for public notice related to permits and permit renewals issued by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. In particular, the notice must include instructions for electronic submission of public comment or request for hearing, the permit application to which the notice applies must be available electronically and a link to a page where the application may be accessed electronically shall be provided in the text of the notice, a copy of the notice shall be posted on the Department's website in addition to whatever other means of delivery is required for the notice, and elected officials whose district includes the location of the permitted activity must be individually notified by e-mail. Where the application materials are too voluminous to post online the Department may provide instructions for alternative access. Conforming and technical changes are made to other parts of the Code that deal directly with public notice of permit applications. The Act is effective 180 days after its enactment.

This Act adopts the PA Licensure Compact, which is an interstate occupational licensure compact for physician assistants (PAs). The purpose of the Compact is to strengthen access to medical services and enhance the portability of a license to practice as a physician assistant while safeguarding the safety of patients and complementing the existing authority of state licensing boards to license and discipline physician assistants. Under the Compact, a physician assistant licensed in a Compact member state may obtain a privilege to practice in another Compact member state. Physician assistants using a Compact privilege to practice in another state must adhere to laws and regulations of practice in that state and are under the jurisdiction of the regulatory board of the state in which they are practicing. The Compact contemplates the establishment of a PA Compact Commission, which will consist of one delegate from each member state and will administer the Compact, and a data system, for the purpose of maintaining a coordinated data and reporting system containing licensure, adverse action, and investigative information on licensed physician assistants in participating states. The Compact will take effect on the date of enactment by the seventh state. Currently, 1 state has enacted the Compact and at least 4 states, not including Delaware, are considering legislation to enact the Compact.

Although lead-based paint is prevalent in many Delaware residences and causes extraordinary neurological damage in children, including seizures, behavioral disorders, developmental delays, and cognitive disabilities, Delaware does not have a comprehensive system to eliminate lead-based paint from those residences where children are still exposed to lead. This Act creates such a system, including: (1) Creating a system by which all properties where a child who is found to have high blood lead levels live are promptly screened for lead-based paint and, where that paint is found, treated to abate or remediate the lead-based paint. (2) Prohibiting landlords of properties where the State has paid for lead-based paint abatement from raising rents on those properties for a period of 3 years. (3) Taking steps to ensure that neither landlords nor local governments present unreasonable delays to the abatement of lead-based paint. (4) Creating a dedicated fund for abatement and remediation of lead-based paint hazards so that all levels of state government can be held accountable for funding lead-based paint abatement efforts. (5) Expanding the duties of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Advisory Committee to include a plan for prompt inspection and, where necessary, abatement or remediation of lead-based paint in all pre-1978 rental properties.

This Act provides state employees 30, rather than 15, days of paid leave per year to attend training camp or serve special duty as ordered by the military reserves or Delaware National Guard.

The expectation for speed enforcement, under Delaware's Motor Vehicle statute, are Delaware's law enforcement agencies. It is not always possible for law enforcement officers to effectively enforce the speed limitations due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, officer availability and safety. The original Act enabled the State, as well as counties and municipalities to more effectively enforce speed limits on roads in a residential district in which a Department of Transportation study, no more than 1 year old, documents that the 85th percentile speed on the road is 5 miles per hour or more than the posted speed limit or the road is in a designated work zone. For a violation to occur a motor vehicle must exceed the posted speed limit by 11 miles per hour or more. This Act would impose only civil penalties for violations and does not impose points on the owner or operator’s driver’s license. Jurisdiction for adjudicating alleged violations would be in the Justice of the Peace Court and there would only be a right of appeal to the Court of Common Pleas if the penalty exceeds $100. Any excess revenue not used for administration of the system, will be managed by the Office of Highway Safety and used only for purposes of education, enforcement, engineering and administration. This Act will sunset in 5 years if not extended by a subsequent act by the General Assembly. This Act is a substitute for and differs from House Bill No. 94 in that it eliminates enforcement by Delaware State Police, anywhere other than work zones, and limits approval and implementation of the speed monitoring system to residential districts in New Castle County and municipalities. This Act also requires payment of voluntary assessments to be made to the entity designated on the summons, which may be the Department of Safety and Homeland Security or the county or city where the speed camera was located.