Sen. Bruce C. Ennis

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year. This Act revises this State’s missing children laws to improve search efforts, increase collaboration between law enforcement agencies, and increase public information about missing children. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act removes the exclusive jurisdiction of the Superior Court for offenses under § 4836 of this Title on the basis of the voluntary and involuntary exclusion lists. This would allow the Court of Common Pleas to hold jurisdiction over these offenses as these are class A misdemeanor offenses.

This Act adds the term “adjudication” to this section of the criminal code to enable juvenile defendants to petition the court for their adjudications of delinquency to be vacated and their juvenile criminal record to be expunged in regard to crimes, other than defined violent felonies, committed as a direct result of being victims of human trafficking.

This bill increases the membership of the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council to 24 members by adding representatives from the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Criminal Justice Council, the Department of Transportation, and the Division of Professional Regulation, a person who has been a victim of human trafficking, and a person who has prior experience working with victims of human trafficking in a legal or advocacy capacity. This bill also changes the quorum for the Council from 7 members to 13.

This Act allows nurse practitioners and physician assistants to recommend medical marijuana for adult patients. This Act does not require the Department of Health and Social Services to promulgate new regulations before implementing this Act because § 10113 of Title 29 exempts amendments to existing regulations to make them consistent with changes in basic law from the process otherwise required under Chapter 101 of Title 29. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act requires the State to reimburse healthcare expenses incurred by eligible pensioner spouses on Medicare who are required to enroll in their former employer's healthcare coverage and their former employer's coverage pays less than the State's coverage would pay. This creates fair and equal benefit coverage for all spouses of eligible pensioner's whether they have former employer coverage or not.

This Act requires the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families ("DSCYF'') to have exclusive jurisdiction over all aspects of a child’s care, custody and control when a child is convicted of a Superior Court offense. The Act establishes that from a date certain, no more juveniles would be transferred to the custody of the Department of Correction upon their adjudication and Level V sentence in Superior Court. The Act also provides that when a juvenile’s case is transferred to Superior Court, a reverse amenability hearing must be filed within 60, not 30, days of arraignment and that the time period may be enlarged by the Court for good cause.

This Resolution commends the work of the New Castle County Police Department Behavioral Health Unit and urges law enforcement agencies throughout the State to adopt a similar unit.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the month of May 2021 as Mental Health Awareness Month.

This Act expands the eligibility for Line-of-Duty disability benefits to all firefighters or emergency medical technicians (EMT) who are a member of a volunteer or municipal fire department in this State or a designated first responder, including firefighters and EMTs who are volunteers, partly paid or full-time employees, plus all fire service instructors or fire marshals employed by this State. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.