Sen. Nicole Poore

This Senate Concurrent Resolution supports the Department of Education's review of the requirements for educator certification and efforts to strengthen these requirements to include demonstrated knowledge of the essential components of evidence-based reading instruction, known as the "science of reading".

This bill prohibits the use of gender, gender identity, or sex as a rating factor in personal automobile insurance policies. The Gender Disparities in Auto Insurance Pricing Report issued by the Delaware Department of Insurance and Consumer Federation of America shows that many insured Delaware women are charged more than men even when all other factors, including drivers’ history, are the same. Six states have similar existing laws: California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

This Act provides a registration system for American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters. At the present time, individuals and organizations who are not certified to provide interpreting services are presenting themselves as acceptable/qualified interpreters without consequence. This is extremely problematic for all consumers utilizing interpreter services. It harms the interests of people who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind by depriving them of the right to meaningful access and involvement in legal or medical settings, as well as other activities in the community. It also harms the interests of people who are not Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or Deaf-Blind by denying them access to effective communication with people who use ASL by providing a lesser quality service than what they believe they are purchasing. A State registration system will help ensure that only qualified individuals provide this vital and necessary service. 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 a fee.

This Act makes patronizing a prostitute a Class G felony with a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000 unless the actor has been convicted of the same offense in the last 5 years, in which case it is a Class F felony with a mandatory minimum fine of $2,000. This Act makes patronizing a prostitute by agreeing to engage in sexual contact with a person younger than 18 years of age, regardless of whether the actor knows the age of the person at the time of the offense, a class D Felony. This Act also makes patronizing a prostitute within 1,000 feet of any school, residence, church, synagogue, or other place of worship a class F Felony with a minimum mandatory fine of $2,000.

This resolution recognizes March 2022 as "Endometriosis Awareness Month" in Delaware to help raise awareness, promote research, and show support to its sufferers.

This Resolution designates March 24th as Delaware Women and Girls STEM Day to celebrate and empower women and girls in STEM fields and promote STEM literacy and education in Delaware.

This resolution recognizes March 25 as "Greek Independence Day" in Delaware.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes March 2022 as "Rare Kidney Disease Awareness Month" in Delaware.

Currently, Delaware is in the minority of states that bar public access to police misconduct records, and is the only state in the country with a specific confidentiality clause in its Law-Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights (“LEOBOR”). Under Delaware's LEOBOR (Chapter 92 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code) police misconduct records are secret and not accessible to the media or the public. This information is tremendously important. Law-enforcement officers are pillars of their community and often the most significant witnesses in criminal trials, where defendants can sometimes face the rest of their lives in prison. This Act would ensure that the public will have access to all serious and substantiated records of law-enforcement misconduct making our criminal justice system fairer and improving trust within our community. Public access, through Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act (Chapter 100 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code), will increase transparency and allow for more meaningful oversight. This Act adds affirmative language to LEOBOR that serious and substantiated law-enforcement disciplinary records are public records. And, this Act makes clear that the only materials that are released relate to disciplinary issues, and do not include personal information. Additionally, this Act makes changes to LEOBOR to increase transparency by enabling the creation and operation of effective community review boards at the State, county, and municipal level. These boards are critical to increasing public trust in the criminal justice system. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Concurrent Resolution encourages Delaware sports organizations to utilize services offered by the U.S. Center for SafeSport. This Concurrent Resolution describes the authority of SafeSport and its initiatives to protect athletes in every sport.