The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 established 988 as the universal phone number for "the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system operating through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline." This Act provides the framework to maximize the benefits of 988 and provide crucial support to Delawareans in need through the implementation of a practical, modern, and comprehensive, integrated crisis care system. This Act is a second substitute for House Bill No. 160. Like House Bill No. 160 this Act does the following: (1) Created the Behavioral Health Crisis Services Board (“Board”) to provide oversight and input on the development of an integrated behavioral health crisis care system in this State. (2) Imposes a behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge on business and residential telephone services, wireless telephone services, and prepaid wireless telephone services. The surcharge will create a dedicated funding source for behavioral health crisis services. The Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention Services Fund is created to receive the surcharge funds. Specifically, this Act establishes a 60-cent per month per line fee on phone lines and a 60-cent one-time fee on prepaid services. Like House Substitute No. 1 to House Bill No. 160, this Act does all of the following: (1) Models the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge after the existing E-911 surcharge and prepaid wireless E911 surcharge created under Chapter 101 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code. (2) Removes the creation of the Behavioral Health Crisis Communication Center and instead directs the Board to develop and recommend a plan for establishing, operating, and maintaining a behavioral health crisis communications center. The Board must submit the plan to the Governor and General Assembly within 12 months from the effective date of this Act. (3) Makes changes to the definition of “mobile crisis team”. (4) Makes changes to the composition of the Board to add the Executive Director of the Ability Network of Delaware and the Executive Director of each of Delaware’s Lifeline Centers. This Act differs from House Substitute No. 1 to House Bill No. 160 as follows: (1) Exempts State government from the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge. (2) Removes a provision that would permit an increase in the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge collected for prepaid wireless telecommunication services if the General Assembly increased the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge collected for residential and business telephone service, wireless service, and nontraditional communication service. (3) Removes the “crisis intervention service” definition. (4) Removes "Providing crisis intervention services." from the list of eligible expenditures for the Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention Services Fund and replaces it with "Establishing, operating, or contracting for crisis teams for adults and children.". This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 11 of Article VIII of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to impose or levy a tax or license fee
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This Act is Nolan’s Law. The purpose of this legislation is to provide more behavioral health supports to school districts and charter schools in the aftermath of a school-connected traumatic event, which is defined as the death of any student, educator, administrator, or other building employee of a public school. The Department of Education is charged with developing guidance, best practices, and written resources for schools dealing with a school-connected traumatic event. The Department must consult with behavioral health specialists and school-based mental health professional organizations such as NAMI, Delaware, Delaware Association of School Psychologists, Delaware School Counselors Association, and the School Social Workers Association of Delaware. The Department must finalize these items by January 1, 2024. This legislation also requires the Department to cover the costs of grief counseling offered to students for up to thirty days after a school-connected traumatic event. In an effort to create a more standardized approach for the occurrence of a school-connected traumatic event, this bill charges each school district and charter school to establish a detailed crisis response policy that must meet a minimum number of required policies and procedures. Policies must be adopted by the school district or charter and distributed to the Department of Education by September 1, 2024.
This bill would extend various deadlines in the Unemployment Code. The intent is to provide claimants and employers additional time to receive and prepare a response or appeal of benefit determinations and other important documents that require a response, in an effort to reduce the incidents of late filed appeals and missed deadlines. This would benefit claimants and employers by providing more time, while also reducing the administrative burden to the Division of Unemployment Insurance of responding to late appeals and late filed documents. This bill also makes conforming changes to additional sections of the Unemployment Code that provide for delivery by mail or other delivery methods to provide flexibility to the Division and Board if they decide to send notices and other documents by email or other delivery methods to reduce mailing expenses and increase efficiency. Finally, this bill confirms Superior Court precedent that Code references to “days” mean “calendar days” unless otherwise specified.
This Act changes the composition of the Commission and further clarifies the definition of “veterans” as it pertains to this Section of Title 29. The Delaware Commission of Veterans’ Affairs is comprised of members, appointed by the Governor, who represent specific veteran organizations. The United States Congress defines the Korean War Era as June 27, 1950 to January 31, 1955, and today most living Korean War Veterans are in their upper 80s or lower 90s. This amendment will redesignate the seat to an organization that is self-perpetuating and whose membership will continue on, and also serve to provide the diverse representation of all veterans. Also preserved is the ability of the current Korean War Commissioner to remain as a Commissioner until his term expires or that seat otherwise becomes vacant. The sole remaining active Chapter of the Korean War Veterans of America in Delaware is in the process of being disbanded due to lack of membership. The Office of Veterans Services is staffed by individuals employed by the State, but who have been required, by reference to the definition of “veteran,” to have “served honorably.” Staffing of the OVS, including the veterans’ cemeteries, has been challenging. This amendment clarifies that a veteran, for qualification as a commissioner, must have been discharged under other than dishonorable conditions. This clarification is consistent with federal laws and regulations regarding the definition of “veteran.”
This Act allows a practitioner with the authority to prescribe medication to give the unused portion of topical medication used during treatment to a patient upon discharge or the conclusion of the visit. This Act is based on the Model Act created by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, which has been adopted in Illinois. During a procedure, practitioners may use only a few drops or small amount of medication from a container. Because regulations governing the ability to dispense the remaining portion of stock-item medications can be unclear or appear overly burdensome, many facilities do not allow the practitioner to dispense that container to the patient to take home with them. Instead, the practitioner must write a prescription for the patient and the medication that remains in the container is discarded. By allowing patients to take home provider-dispensed medication, this Act reduces waste and health-care costs and by eliminating the extra burden of going to the pharmacy to fill a prescription, this Act will better ensure medication compliance. This Act is known as "The Topical Medical Waste Reduction Act". This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act requires physicians who are discontinuing business, leaving the State, or terminating a patient-physician relationship for any other reason to notify affected patients at least thirty days prior to the discontinuation of services via first class mail and an electronic message if electronic communication is available. It removes the requirement that physicians ending a patient-physician relationship publish a notice in a newspaper of daily circulation. Notice sent to patients must include information about how the patient may obtain their medical records and information about other physician services in the area that are available to patients who will require continued medical care. This Act further adds that a patient receive notice by electronic message, if available, when a physician dies and has not transferred patient records to another health-care provider. Finally, this Act makes technical changes to create consistency with those sections being amended by SB 74 of the 152nd General Assembly, relating to the transfer of medical records in other health-care professions.
This Act revamps the Council on Police Training, by changing the name of the Council to the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission (or POST) and amending its powers and duties to: (1) more accurately reflect the dual role of establishing training standards for Delaware police officers as well as overseeing allegations of police officer misconduct and conducting hearings for possible suspensions or de-certifications; (2) untethering the Council from the Delaware State Police by deleting the requirement that the Director of the Delaware State Police Academy is responsible for education and training in connection with the Council’s duties and responsibilities; (3) removing the requirement that discipline proceedings be tied to whether the employing department takes action against the officer and increasing the instances when discipline can be issued; (4) advising the Delaware Police Accreditation Commission regarding statewide accreditation standards; (5) issuing guidelines for local police oversight commissions or boards. The Bill improves transparency by increasing required meetings from two to four per year, clarifying that decisions of disciplinary panels are public documents, requiring that departments form public accountability commissions with non-officer members, and requiring a public comment period and an official website with publication of pertinent records and documents of the POST. By amending the definition of “police officer,” the bill also requires that officers employed only part-time are subject to the regulatory oversight of the POST. The Bill proposes that the Council’s day-to-day functions be provided through professionals retained by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Finally, the Bill makes minor technical and other non-substantive changes, including deleting outdated provisions of the Code. This includes striking the provision that required body-worn camera standards to be in place by 2022 – since those regulations are now in place – and instead requiring the POST to “periodically review and propose updates as needed to regulations and standards” for body-worn cameras in cooperation with other stakeholders. Sections 2 through 16 make conforming changes to other parts of the Code that referenced the Council on Police Training.
This Act makes a number of revisions to the Law-Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights in Title 11 of the Delaware Code. It adds part-time officers to the coverage of the chapter. It distinguishes between formal investigations and informal inquiries, but requires that even informal inquiries must comport with federal and State law, including NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 420 U.S. 251 (1975) and Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967). This Act requires that a detailed narrative of an internal investigation must be prepared by an investigating agency and publicly posted in any case involving use of force that results in serious physical injury; the discharge of a firearm; a sustained finding of sexual assault or sexual harassment; a sustained finding of dishonesty; or a sustained finding of domestic violence. Further, it requires that an investigation into officer misconduct must be completed, regardless of the employment status of the officer. I.e., even if an officer resigns or retires while an investigation is pending, the department must complete the investigation and report sustained findings of misconduct to the Council on Police Training. The Act also requires a department to provide information to a complainant or victim of officer misconduct sufficient to reasonably address concerns regarding the investigation and its outcome, including the investigative findings, conclusions, and any recommendations for further action. Finally, the Act requires, upon request of a defendant in a criminal or delinquency case, and through the Department of Justice, all existing records relating to sustained findings of misconduct relating to perjury, intentional false statements or false reports, or destruction, falsification, or concealment of evidence by an officer who participated in the investigation or prosecution. It also provides that law-enforcement officers must be required, upon hire, to sign an agreement allowing the hiring agency to provide copies of that officer’s personnel file and disciplinary and investigative records with any other law-enforcement agency that makes an offer or conditional offer of hire to that officer in the future. The CJC will aggregate and post all of the narratives required to be prepared under this chapter on its website, along with an annual report of the following: (1) The number of public complaints and internal complaints relating to police misconduct that the department received each year, broken down by subject matter of the complaint; (2) The number of formal investigations undertaken by the department each year, and the number of complaints resolved without a formal investigation; (3) The number of formal investigations that resulted in a sustained finding of misconduct, an unsubstantiated finding, or any other disposition. Records relating to any incident for which a detailed narrative is required to be prepared and posted must be preserved for at least 25 years. This Substitute differs from the original House Bill No. 205 as follows: 1. It adds sustained findings that a law-enforcement officer engaged in sexual harassment to the required public disclosures. 2. It broadens the requirement for public disclosures relating to sustained findings of dishonesty. 3. It limits the requirement for public disclosures relating to the discharge of a firearm to those instances where the firearm is discharged at a person. 4. It clarifies that the required disclosures apply to chiefs of police and other high ranking officials. 5. It moves all of the disclosures into a single section (§ 9210). 6. It requires, instead of permitting, that the victim or complainant with respect to misconduct must be told of the conclusion of the inquiry. 7. It clarifies that the public detailed narratives required for certain incidents is a prospective requirement, while disclosures in a criminal or delinquency matter pertain to all relevant existing records. 8. It requires additional disclosures to the defendant of investigations into dishonesty-related misconduct that occurred in the course of the investigation of the pending matter; requires law-enforcement agencies to disclose to the Department of Justice such records; and provides if the investigation finds the allegation unsubstantiated it may not be used in any criminal or delinquency proceeding. 9. Reinforces the duty of the State to preserve and disclose records underlying misconduct dealt with in this chapter. 10. Reverts references to the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission to Council on Police Training. 11. Sets a timeline for the preparation and posting of required public disclosures.
This resolution designates August 31, 2023, as "International Overdose Awareness Day" in the State of Delaware, affirms the importance of overdose awareness, and encourages expanded efforts to keep Delaware residents properly informed of the grief that comes from losing a loved one to overdose.
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.