Rep. Bill Bush

This Act renames the Delaware State Police Training Academy as the "Colonel James L. Ford, Jr. State Police Training Academy" in honor of Colonel Ford’s lifelong dedication to public service. It acknowledges his distinguished career with the Delaware State Police, where he held various leadership roles, ultimately serving as Superintendent. The Act also recognizes his significant contributions to law enforcement training, education, and public safety, as well as his service as Cabinet Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security.

This Act provides immunity to nonprofit organizations who distribute new secure gun storage and safety devices to individuals so long as the devices are distributed in their original packaging and are unopened. The nonprofit must provide gun safety pamphlets with the distribution of gun storage and safety devices. This Act does not limit any liability on the part of the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of the secure gun storage or safety device. HS 1 to HB 154 clarifies that this Act applies to tax-exempt nonprofit organizations and law enforcement agencies. It also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act establishes the Office of Suicide Prevention to address suicide prevention and to do the following: (1) Serve in coordination with the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families as a place to reach all suicide prevention resources in the State. (2) Assist the suicide prevention coalition in its mission. (3) Provide suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention vision and guidance to stakeholders throughout the State. (4) Work with community level prevention organizations to promote best practices in suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. (5) Oversee suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention funding application processes and seek grant funds to further suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. (6) Prepare an annual report for the General Assembly and Governor that outlines the work of the Office and progress made towards suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention, beginning on October 15, 2026. (7) Create the State’s Suicide Prevention Plan, with approval of the suicide prevention coalition, and update it no fewer than every three years. The Act provides that the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health will choose a Director to carry out the Office’s duties.

Currently, if a child’s criminal case is transferred by the Family Court to Superior Court, or if a child files an application in Superior Court to have their criminal case transferred to Family Court and the Superior Court denies the application, there is no recourse for appeal until the child’s criminal case is finally adjudicated in Superior Court. In State v. Roberts, Del.Supr. 282 A.2nd 603 (1971) the Delaware Supreme Court stated its jurisdiction over such appeals by an accused, may only be by operation of law. This Act permits the child to enter a plea of guilty or nolo contendere and appeal an amenability denial to the Delaware Supreme Court within 30 days of being sentenced by the Superior Court. This Act also prohibits any plea being conditioned on waiving this right of appeal. This Act also clarifies that the Superior Court will not retain jurisdiction over the child if the Supreme Court reverses the Superior Court’s Order. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform with H.B. 115 of the 151st General Assembly, which was enacted into law on November 8, 2021 and prohibited transfers to Superior Court for children under the age of 16 in all but the most serious offenses.

This Act requires a peace officer to consider issuing a juvenile civil citation to a qualified juvenile offender who would otherwise be charged only with specified offenses, and requires that if the peace officer decides not to issue a civil citation and instead charges the juvenile with a crime, the peace officer must document the reason in DELJIS. This Act also requires each law enforcement agency to submit an annual report to the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission about its use of juvenile civil citations. Finally, this Act requires that training on the Juvenile Civil Citation Program be included as part of a police officer’s mandatory training every 2 years.

The Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, Chapter 45 of Title 6, prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation on the basis of race, age, marital status, creed, religion, color, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. This Act ensures that all government services, including those provided directly by government entities and those that are government-funded or supervised, are subject to the same non-discrimination requirements as private businesses by revising the definition of “place of public accommodation”. This Act also creates a definition of “person” that is consistent with similar definitions in the Code. Sections 2 through 4 of this Act provide enactment instructions because House Bill No. 36 (153rd General Assembly) also revises § 4502(19) of Title 6. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Current law allows pensioners to be employed in a Governor-appointed position or as a temporary, casual, seasonal, or substitute employee, including as a substitute teacher, but only after a 6-month separation of service period if the pensioner is under age 65 and limits annual earnings by temporary, casual, seasonal, or substitute employees to $50,000 before an individual’s earnings affect the amount of the individual’s pension. To alleviate staffing shortages in schools and state agencies with 24-hour shifts, this Act removes the earnings limit beginning calendar year 2025, lowers the age when the separation of service period applies to individuals who are under 59 ½ years old, and reduces the required separation of service period to 3 months. This Act also clarifies that the pensioners may be employed as substitute teachers by charter schools under the same requirements as school districts. To comply with federal law, this Act makes the bona fide 3-month separation period applicable to all pensioners employed under § 5502(a) of Title 29. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act is a substitute for and differs from Senate Bill No. 202 by requiring only New Castle County to prepare and submit reports on a quarterly basis. The substitute bill also replaces language of the original bill that referenced property parcels “sold” and their “purchased value” with more precise terms consistent with language used on the realty transfer tax return such as “consideration.”

This Act establishes a new state-level Department of Veterans Affairs led by a cabinet-level Secretary to advocate for and administer programs relating to veterans in the State of Delaware. It is the intent of this legislation that current staff of the Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Veterans Affairs will continue their work, but as part of the new Department of Veterans Affairs, with the potential for expanded staff and duties in accordance with annual appropriations. The Department will hire veterans wherever possible. The Commission of Veterans Affairs will continue in its current form. It will continue to oversee the Delaware Veterans Home and will serve in an advisory role to the new Secretary and Department on other matters relating to veterans. The new Department is tasked with developing and proposing strategies for the provision of alternative elder care or the establishment of one or more additional veterans homes to serve the aging veteran population. House Substitute No. 1 to House Bill No. 1 differs from the original in that the Department of Veterans Affairs will for the present remain a part of the Department of State for budgetary, administrative, and operational purposes. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in consultation with other executive branch officials, is directed to develop a transition plan to separate from the Department of State and operate as a separate Department by July 1, 2030, or such time as there will be no negative impacts to the funding for veterans programs in Delaware. The plan must be presented to the General Assembly as a Transition Report and approved through a concurrent resolution.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution calls for an immediate review of the recent statewide property reassessment by the members of the General Assembly, in collaboration with state, local, and school district officials, to develop legislative and operational measures that ensure future reassessments are conducted fairly, transparently, and equitably.