Individuals who are released from prison face many hurdles as they re-enter the community, including difficulty obtaining identification documents. Lacking identification imposes additional hurdles as these individuals attempt to find housing and employment. This Act requires the Department of Correction to provide individuals who are being released from the custody of the Department of Correction ("DOC"), after 6 months of incarceration following conviction, with a Delaware Personal Credential Card ("Personal Credential"). An individual may present the Personal Credential to receive one free certified copy of the individual's birth certificate and one identification card or driver's license, if otherwise eligible to receive those documents. This Act builds on the pilot that has been in place since 2012, when the DOC partnered with the Division of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Health and Social Services to obtain identification for individuals who volunteer to participate in the I-ADAPT re-entry program. Currently, individuals in I-ADAPT receive a Prisoner Re-Entry card, valid for 1 year, that can be used to obtain to obtain a free copy of their birth certificate, if they were born in Delaware, and a free identification card, if otherwise eligible to receive one.
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This Act has the effect of renaming the Delaware Department of Transportation Welcome Center on Interstate 95 at 530 JFK Memorial Highway, Newark, Delaware as the "Biden Welcome Center" in honor of the Biden family. This gesture is made because of the exemplary service to the State of Delaware the Bidens have provided, and because of their lifelong promotion of this State.
This Act makes the Delaware equal accommodation law internally consistent, correctly organized, and aligned with the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). This Act corrects the potential for confusion in Chapter 45 of Title 6 in the following ways: 1. The current law states that the purpose of Chapter 45 is to prohibit discrimination based upon physical disability but Chapter 45 actually prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental disabilities. This Act corrects the purpose language in § 4501 of Title 6 by changing the term "physical disability" to "disability" so that it accurately states the scope of the protection provided by of Chapter 45. 2. The current law uses the term "support animal" while the ADA and other states use the term "service animal." This Act replaces the term "support animal" with "service animal" to use the same term as the ADA. 3. The current law defines "support animal" as assisting only individuals with physical disabilities and does not address service animals that assist individuals with nonphysical disabilities, even though Chapter 45 prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental impairments. This Act uses the ADA definition of service animal, which requires that the dog be trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. 4. The current law places the prohibition against discriminating against an individual with a support animal in the definition section rather than in the prohibited practices section. This Act moves the requirement that a service animal be permitted to accompany an individual with a disability in public places from the definition of disability to the statute that lists unlawful practices. With these corrections, this Act restructures and corrects the language in Chapter 45 of Title 6 so that it is consistent with the ADA and clear that an individual with any disability, including an individual with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or other psychiatric, intellectual, or mental disability, may be accompanied by a service animal in a public place. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act stabilizes revenue for the Hazardous Substances Cleanup Act ("HSCA") Fund ("the Fund") by minimizing the wide swings in revenue due to oil prices changes. Under this Act, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control ("the Department") is prevented from receiving a revenue windfall when oil prices rise, while minimum funding for the Brownfields Grant Program is protected when oil prices are low. The legislation ties HSCA funding to a median benchmark and authorizes the Division of Revenue to adjust the tax rate up or down for the following year to smooth the revenue stream and avoid the roller coaster effect of oil price changes. This Act caps the HSCA tax rate at 1.675% and allows the lowest rate to drop to .675%, versus the current HSCA rate of .9%. This Act sets aside a minimum of $5,000,000 annually in HSCA funds for the Brownfields Grant Program, which has leveraged private investment of 16 times the public funds expended in cleaning up polluted sites and returning them to productive use, generating jobs and tax revenue.
This legislation makes two minor modifications to Delaware’s background check process for prospective employees and volunteers at child-serving entities. It: 1) clarifies that an employer who must first obtain a signed authorization from the prospective employee for a Child Protection Registry Check, must attach that authorization to the request for the Registry check; and 2) only those persons currently on the Child Protection Registry may impact an employer’s decision whether to hire a person who is not otherwise expressly excluded from employment.
Far too many Delawareans have been personally affected by addiction and substance use disorder and have experienced the tragedy of watching loved ones suffer from this chronic disease. Nearly 2,000 individuals in Delaware suffered a non-fatal overdose in 2017, but data suggest that many of these individuals continued to be prescribed opioid pain medications or did not receive substance use disorder treatment. This Act links specific patient care data related to overdose collected by the Office of Emergency Medical Services or the Office of the State Epidemiologist with data in the Delaware Prescription Monitoring Program (“PMP”). This Act will foster best practices in the use of health information, to ensure that consistent, humane, evidence-based treatment and care is available and provided to those suffering from substance use disorder or non-fatal overdose. Linking this data may assist prescribers and pharmacists in the identification of substance use disorder and promote safer prescribing. This Act also provides prescriber and dispenser identified data to the PMP Advisory Committee and the Addiction Action Committee, which will enable these committees to do the following: 1. Appropriately identify prescribing and dispensing patterns of concern. 2. Make recommendations to the PMP administrator. 3. Provide targeted education to those individuals whose prescribing or dispensing practices are outliers from the Delaware average. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act establishes the High Needs Educator Student Loan Payment Program. The Program allows qualified applicants to apply for a payment from the State to the applicant’s lending agency, to pay a portion of the applicant’s student loan debt. The purpose of the Program is to encourage Educators to work and remain working in certification areas in which Delaware has a shortage and to encourage Educators to work and remain working in Delaware’s hardest-to-staff Schools. The amount of the award shall be no less than $1000 and no more than $2000. This substitute redesignates the chapter where this language will be placed in the code.
This bill creates regulations concerning the use, distribution and education of Benzodiazepine and Non-benzodiazepine Hypnotics. It require Practitioners to obtain consent from a minor’s parent or guardian prior to prescribing these drugs, and require pharmacist to include a cautionary statement explaining the risks associated with the long term use of these drugs.
This bill allows for small employers who have more than 5 employees to obtain a “stop loss” policy for health insurance. This will provide more options for small employers in the health insurance market. Additionally these changes bring the section into compliance with the Delaware Legislative Drafting manual.
This amendment removes the notary requirement for requests for absentee ballots in municipal elections. The notary requirement for absentee ballots in State elections has previously been removed.