Sen. Bruce C. Ennis

SB 187 passed by the 150th General Assembly moved the Office of Child Care Licensing (“OCCL”) from the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (“DSCYF”) to the Department of Education (“DOE”). This Act cleans up references in the Code that still refer to the OCCL and its responsibilities as part of DSCYF and changes the references to reflect its status and responsibilities as part of DOE. This bill also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act amends the Department of Services for Children, Youth & Their Families (“DSCYF”) required drug testing statute to gain parity in pre-employment drug testing procedures across state agencies that provide services for children and secure care for children or adults. Secure care positions in the Department of Correction, Delaware Psychiatric Center, and DSCYF’s Prevention and Behavioral Health and Youth Rehabilitative Services facilities are historically hard to fill. Because of the sensitive nature of these positions, there is a thorough application and vetting process for applicants, the last steps of which are the pre-employment background checks and drug testing. Despite numerous ongoing efforts to recruit and retain applicants for these positions within DSCYF’s facilities, interested applicants often choose to abandon the lengthy application process in favor of opportunities for faster hiring processes at large employers located nearby. Currently, the statute allows DSCYF to make a conditional offer of employment to an applicant who has submitted to the required pre-employment drug testing. This Act would allow DSCYF to conditionally hire an applicant and begin training the person after they have provided proof that they have submitted to the required drug testing. This ability is in line with § 5139 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code, which allows the Delaware Psychiatric Center to conditionally hire an applicant “to maintain an appropriate level of patient care,” and § 8922 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code, which simply states that the Department of Correction must test “all security sensitive applicants and applicant employees.” This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act amends the Town of Townsend Charter to provide the Town with some flexibility in scheduling its meetings.

This Senate Simple Resolution urges Delaware's U.S. Congressional Delegation and the President of the United States to support federal legislation, H.R. 3339, to establish a National Infrastructure Bank to fund urgently needed infrastructure projects.

This Concurrent Resolution urges the Secretary of the Navy to designate Philadelphia and both banks of the Delaware River as the site of the main celebration of the 250th birthdays of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in October and November 2025.

This Resolution recognizes the 50th anniversary of the Middletown Area Chamber of Commerce.

This Act funds the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council by disbursing to the Council $100,000 each fiscal year from the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes. Under § 4101(h) of Title 11, the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes is funded by a $15 penalty imposed on and collected from defendants for certain crimes or civil violations. The money within the Fund is divided between the Department of Safety and Homeland Security and local law-enforcement agencies for use in connection with initiatives to combat violent crime. No more than $4,250,000 may be deposited into the Fund. Any amount more than $4,250,000 reverts to the General Fund. In recent fiscal years, the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes has reverted excess funds to the General Fund. Because of the new disbursement of $100,000 to the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council, this Act also increases the maximum amount of money that may be deposited into the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes by $100,000 to $4,350,000. This Act also adds to existing reporting requirements for the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council that the Council document how it spends disbursements from the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes. The Council must also provide the report to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act commits discretion over the length of certified nursing assistant training and orientation programs to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. This change will facilitate the rapid certification of National Guard members as certified nursing assistants (CNAs) by allowing the Department of Health and Social Services to establish the total required classroom and clinical training and mandatory facility-specific orientation hours. Modeled after a Minnesota initiative, eligible guard members will participate in rapid certification programs through DelTech and be deployed to provide temporary staffing in long term care facilities experiencing staffing shortages under MOUs entered will the facilities. National Guard members have served as a critical part of the state’s response efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Training and deploying National Guard soldiers to work as CNAs will help relieve staffing shortages in health care settings and facilitate the transfer of patients out of Delaware’s hospitals to free up in-patient bed space.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution proclaims January 23, 2022, as "Maternal Health Awareness Day" in the State of Delaware.

This concurrent resolution remembers and recognizes the life and service of former Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner.