This Act prohibits motor vehicle lessors from including licensing, title, registration, and plate fees as a separately stated mandatory charge in a rental agreement.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year. This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 46. Like Senate Bill No. 46, this Act revises this State's missing children laws to improve search efforts, increase collaboration between law enforcement agencies, and increase public information about missing children. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 46 in that it does all of the following: (1) Removes language relating to “unemancipated minors” and instead uses the term “child”, as defined in § 302 of Title 1 of the Delaware Code, uniformly throughout Subchapter II of Chapter 85 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code. Delaware does not have emancipation of minors and anyone under the age of 18 is considered a child under our laws. (2) Includes a legal custodian as a person who can sign a dental authorization form to permit release of dental records to law-enforcement agencies. This allows the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families to authorize the release of dental records for any child in its legal custody. (3) Includes a legal custodian as a point of contact for law-enforcement agencies when fulfilling their duties regarding unidentified deceased persons. This allows the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families to be a point of contact and receive information for any child in its legal custody. (4) Removes the limitation on who may report a missing child and instead allows a child to be reported missing by any person. This enables schools, daycares, group homes, relatives, or persons caring for a child without legal authority to report a child missing from their care. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act does all of the following: (1) Adds a requirement that, in order for a veterinarian to practice veterinary medicine, a relationship among the veterinarian, the client, and the patient must be established and maintained. The majority of states mandate the existence of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship as a prerequisite to treating an animal and such requirement is critical to the health of animals. This requirement is also consistent with Food and Drug Administration standards. (2) Adds a licensure exemption for veterinarians and veterinary technicians who want to practice in Delaware in connection with a State emergency. (3) Strikes a provision that allows issuance of a temporary permit to practice veterinary medicine to an individual who has not passed the licensing examination and also requires compliance with reciprocity requirements. These two requirements, taken together, cannot be met, and consequently, the section is very confusing and misleading. Temporary licenses will still be available for veterinarians where the applicant is either being considered for licensure under the reciprocity provision or is eligible to take the licensure examination. (4) Strikes the 7 year grandfathering provision, which was adopted when the Board first began to license veterinary technicians, and which is now expired. (5) Allows veterinary technicians to obtain temporary licenses pending passing of the licensure examination. (6) Gives the Board the authority to impose monetary penalties on licensees who are found to have committed regulatory or statutory violations. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act comes from the Division of Professional Regulation and has been approved by the Board of Veterinary Medicine.
This Act creates the Delaware Community Investment Venture Fund to develop opportunities for banking organizations and credit unions doing business in Delaware to better serve the needs of low to moderate income tracts in Delaware. The source of funds will be transfers from the Delaware State Bank Commissioner Regulatory Revolving Fund (established in Section 105 of Title 5), which currently has an amount in excess of that needed to cover the operating expenses of the Office of the State Bank Commissioner. The initial transfer will be up to $2.5 million, plus another $250,000 for expenses. Thereafter, additional transfers of up to $500,000 each fiscal year are authorized. No further transfers are authorized after June 30, 2028, unless further legislation is approved by the General Assembly.
This Act establishes updated, detailed standards for the practice of hearing aid dispensing. Definitions are added to specify that the standards and requirements pertaining hearing aid dispensing apply to prescription hearing aids only and not to over-the-counter hearing aids. Hearing aid dispenser licensure requirements consist of a high school diploma, six months of on-the-job training, and a national exam. Currently, hearing aid dispensers are expressly prohibited from making medical diagnoses or audiologic evaluations, as set forth in 24 Del. C. § 3702(7). Input from stakeholders demonstrated that HADs were practicing outside the permissible scope of practice. Impermissible activities include cerumen management (wax removal), which is considered invasive, and treating tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which can indicate more complex medical issues. These conditions are appropriately treated by a physician, preferably a hearing specialist. Further, HADs frequently use medical diagnosis codes to ensure payment from insurance carriers, which conflicts with the medical diagnosis prohibition in the current law. A new scope of practice definition delineates permissible and prohibited activities and identifies when referral to a physician is required. This Act also clarifies that a speech/language pathologist applicant must present a certificate of clinical competence issued by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Audiologist applicants are not subject to this requirement. The distinction is that ASHA evaluates the speech/language pathologist’s practicum and clinical fellowship, which are requirements for licensure. In contrast, an audiologist applicant is only required to establish receipt of a doctoral degree and successful completion of a national licensure examination. This Act clarifies that audiologists licensed prior to July 10, 2009 do not need to meet the educational requirement of a doctoral degree as long as they have maintained Delaware licensure. This Act further amends provisions relating to examinations to comport with current practice. This Act revises the reciprocity requirements in the interests of clarity. This Act sets forth requirements for licensure of applicants who were educated outside of the United States. This Act removes the definitions of audiology aide and speech pathology aide on the basis that the Board does not license aides. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act establishes a wellness program designed to improve the well-being of first responders and first responders’ immediate family members, as well as civilian employees of police, fire, and emergency medical services agencies and their immediate family members, through the provision of wellness program services by trained peer support members. Wellness program services may include counseling, spiritual guidance, and education about financial resources, health resources, legal assistance, and stress management services. This Act extends the confidentiality privileges to include communications made by a first responder, the first responder’s immediate family member, a civilian employee, or a civilian employee’s immediate family member, to a trained peer support member providing wellness program services though a state, county, or municipal law-enforcement, fire, or emergency medical agency’s wellness program. This Act adds chaplains to definition of “first responders”. This Act defines “civilian employee”. This Act updates the definitions section to account for the creation of the wellness program. This Act also revises the confidentiality exception in § 4319(d)(4) of Title 10. In current Code, the exception applies in certain instances where the first offender uses critical incident stress management (CISM) services to commit or attempt to commit “a crime or fraud or mental or physical injury to the first responder who received critical incident stress management services or another individual”. This Act replaces the quoted phrase with “‘crime’, as defined under § 233 of Title 11, or fraud.” This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. The technical changes include combining the privileges to refuse to disclose any matter and refuse to produce any object or record that are covered in § 4319(b) and (c) of Title 11 in current Code into a single subsection, § 4319(b) of Title 10. This Act updates subsection (c) so that it only contains 1 subject: that the privileges in subsection (b) only apply if the proceedings, communications, or records, including information, are obtained during the provision of critical incident stress management (CISM) services or wellness program services.
This Act expressly adds the intentional restriction of another adult’s access to economic resources resulting in a loss of financial autonomy to the definition of abuse for protection from abuse proceedings. This Act also specifies that tangible property of the petitioner includes legal documents belonging to the petitioner. In addition, this Act codifies the existing practice of Family Court to allow relief by ordering respondents to return specific legal documents. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Under current law, an individual can file a charge of employment discrimination by sending the verified charge to the Delaware Department of Labor (Department). This Act clarifies that a verified charge of discrimination is deemed to be filed on the date it is sent to the Department. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This bill creates the Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act. The Act delineates a consumer’s personal data rights and provides that residents of this State will have the right to know what information is being collected about them, see the information, correct any inaccuracies, or request deletion of their personal data that is being maintained by entities or people. This Act is modeled after existing frameworks for data privacy in other jurisdictions. This Act will apply to entities that conduct business in the State of Delaware who controlled or processed the personal data of not less than 35,000 consumers or controlled or processed the personal data of not less than 10,000 consumers and derived more than 20 percent of their gross revenue from the sale of personal data. This Act requires Delaware Department of Justice to engage in public outreach to educate consumers and the business community about the Act beginning at least 6 months prior to the effective date of the Act.
This Act expands the rights of long-term care facility residents by ensuring that long-term care facility residents are entitled to care that recognizes cultural differences and preferences and that long-term care facility residents are made aware of their rights in a language and format that is accessible to the resident. This Act also requires the Department of Health and Social Services to prepare a standardized notice listing all rights detailed in § 1121 of Title 16 in a language and format that is accessible to each resident or their authorized representative. This bill also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
