Sen. Nicole Poore

This Act allows any school district located in New Castle County to reset its tax rates for the 2025-2026 tax year and to reissue a tax warrant using different residential and non-residential tax rates. The non-residential tax rate must be at least equal to the residential tax rate and may not be more than 2 times the residential tax rate. The total amount of revenue projected to be collected through use of the residential and non-residential tax rates may not exceed the total amount of revenue the district was projected to collect under its original tax warrant. The districts have 10 business days from the enactment of this Act to reset the rates and issue a new tax warrant to New Castle County. Upon receipt of a new tax warrant, New Castle County will supplement any tax bill already issued for taxpayers in that district and adjust tax bills with an extended deadline for payment of October 30, 2025 for tax bills that change. For any taxpayer who submits payment under the original tax bill and whose total school tax liability is adjusted downward, the difference will be credited against future tax liability unless the taxpayer submits a written request for a refund, in which case New Castle County shall issue a refund. A school district that resets its rates in accordance with this Act may request and borrow from State Division I funds in the event of a cash flow shortfall of local school funds due to the extension of the deadline for tax payments for the 2026 fiscal year.

This Act allows for correctional officers and probation and parole officers employed with the Department of Correction to make a written request that their personal information not be published and remain confidential. The Act takes effect 180 days after its enactment to allow for implementation.

This Act requires a county to issue a refund to a taxpayer for property tax determined to have been overpaid for that year after an assessment appeal if the amount is $50 or greater. A county may elect to refund or credit the amount against future taxes due when the overpayment is less than $50. Amounts in school taxes determined to have been overpaid by a taxpayer after an assessment appeal will be refunded by the county following the same rule.

This Act expands the composition of the Family Justice Center Council by removing a single member that previously represented the health care community including both mental health providers and sexual assault nurse examiners, and instead adding one member representing the mental health care provider community, one member representing the sexual assault nurse examiner community, and one member representing system-based police or prosecution victim service specialists.

Beginning in 2002, schools, school districts, and licensed child care providers have been required to keep binders of community notifications with information about registered sex offenders. This requirement was enacted based on recommendation from the Community Notification Task Force that schools have a role in community awareness. However, this requirement has created financial, administrative, and emotional burdens for staff who maintain the binders. The binders are rarely reviewed by the public and they do not necessarily provide up-to-date information or information on sex offenders in the immediate geographic area of the school, school district, or licensed child care provider. Additionally, in its March 31, 2002, report, the Community Notification School Task Force found that schools do not have the expertise to answer inevitable questions regarding the nature of particular offenses or the risk posed by particular offenders, and that it is not an appropriate role for educators to answer those questions. This Act eliminates the requirement that a school, school district, or licensed child care provider keep community notifications in a binder. Instead, schools, school district, or licensed child care providers are required to provide “school and child care notification” that includes all of the following information: 1. Notification that searchable records available to the public can be obtained at a police agency or the Delaware State Bureau of Identification (“SBI”). 2. Notification that the public can register for community notifications on the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry website. 3. The URL for the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry website. The school, school district, or licensed child care provider must provide the school and child care notification upon request from staff, faculty, or a parent or guardian of an enrolled child. Additionally, the school, school district, or licensed child care provider must post the school and child care notification on its website or, if it does not have website, the school, school district, or licensed child care provider must send the information to staff, faculty, and a legal parent or guardian of an enrolled child in writing at least annually. The Act also clarifies that sex offender registry information must be available on the Internet on the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry website. Federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) guidelines require law enforcement to keep a registry of sex offenders and to provide public notification. Specifically, the guidelines require law enforcement to notify schools, but do not require schools to provide access to sex offender records. Instead, federal law enacted in 2006, 34 U.S.C. § 20920, requires states to provide public access to sex offender registry information on the Internet. The SBI maintains the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry on its website, which allows the general public to find information about registered sex offenders by searching the offender’s information or by searching in a geographic radius. The website also allows the public to sign up for e-mail notifications regarding sex offenders who appear on the website. The website is updated every Friday. It is easily accessible to most of the public, including on computers at public libraries. Additionally, the public can request sex offender registry information in-person at a Delaware State Police troop. The public also can call the SBI for information. Certain municipal police agencies, such as the City of Dover Police Department and the Newark Delaware Police Department, also provide access to community notifications for offenders located in the municipality on the agency’s website. Law-enforcement agencies are better equipped than schools or licensed childcare providers to answer questions about the registry. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act requires the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association to promulgate regulations requiring all coaches to have CPR, first aid, and automated external defibrillator (AED) training. It also requires schools with an athletic program or department to have an Emergency Action Plan for responding to a cardiac arrest event at an athletic event or practice. It requires that an AED be accessible in a clearly marked, unlocked location at any athletic event or venue. Finally, the regulations must require testing and maintenance of AEDs and notification to the Office of Emergency Medical Services regarding the AED acquisition and its location.

This Act creates a background special license plate for the William Penn High School to support scholarships and community events sponsored by the high school. A background special license plate supports a cause and is available for purchase by the public at large, including members of the organization. The numbers, letters, or both, assigned will be the same as the license plate assigned to the owner’s vehicle at the time of the application for the plate. 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 for the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when a new tax or license fee is imposed.

This Act amends the Charter of the City of New Castle by authorizing the City Council to levy taxes on real property at varying rates based upon property classification (e.g. residential, commercial, or industrial). H.S. 1 to H.B. 144 clarifies that any taxes on real property must be in “just portions” sufficient to cover the aggregate of the budget.

This Act requires additional reporting and disclosure related to the use of mechanical restraint and seclusion in public schools. While public school personnel cannot use mechanical restraint or seclusion on students in absence of a waiver, law-enforcement officers can. This Act requires the Department of Education to collect data from public schools about the use of mechanical restraint and seclusion, in addition to the physical restraint data that is already collected. The Department of Education shall include the mechanical restraint and seclusion data in its annual report. This Act adds a specific date by which the annual report is due. Additionally, the annual report must be submitted to certain entities, including the Delaware School Boards Association and the boards of education of school districts and the boards of directors of charter schools. This Act also adds mechanical restraint and seclusion to the parental notice requirement and special procedures and safeguard requirements that already exist for use of physical restraint. Though § 4112F defines “chemical restraint”, chemical restraint cannot be performed by anyone in a public school. Therefore, this Act does not add chemical restraint to data collection, reporting, parental notification, or safeguard requirements. Furthermore, this Act adds a definition of school resource officer (SRO) to clarify that SROs are law-enforcement officers. This Act requires the Department of Education to amend its regulations in accordance with the definitions in this Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including correctly formatting lists and revising § 4112F(d) of Title 14, the subsection addressing particular training requirements for SROs, to account for the creation of a definition of SRO. One technical correction in § 4112F(d) is changing a “shall not” to a “may not” as it applies to the prohibition against the use of SROs who have not complied with mandated training requirements. According to Rule 12 in the Legislative Drafting Manual, “shall not” should be avoided in legislative drafting. Furthermore, both “may not” and “must not” are proper ways to express a prohibition in the Delaware Code. They convey the same level of mandatory prohibition except that “may not” qualifies a verb in active voice while “must not” qualifies an inactive verb or an active verb in passive voice. This technical correction still prohibits school districts and charter schools from using an SRO who has not satisfied the training requirements in § 4112F(d). This Act takes effect on August 1, 2025.

This Substitute to HB 91 differs from HB 91 in that it further expands free breakfasts in schools participating in the federal School Breakfast Program by making them available to all students, regardless of household income, but does not expand free lunch income eligibility. The Department of Education shall reimburse a public school providing free breakfasts. The reimbursement must be equal to the federal free reimbursement rate multiplied by the total number of breakfasts that the participating public school serves during the applicable budget year minus the total amount of reimbursement for breakfasts served during the applicable budget year that the participating public school receives under the School Breakfast Program. This Act does not apply to schools participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, Provision 1, Provision 2, or Provision 3 special assistance certification and reimbursement alternatives. This Act takes effect immediately and is to be implemented beginning July 1, 2026.