As poll from 2017 revealed that 31% of people in the United States have been sexually harassed in the workplace. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a comprehensive study of workplace harassment in the United States which concluded that between 25% and 85% of women reported having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. However, the Commission estimated that 75% of all workplace harassment incidents go unreported. The purpose of this bill is to combat sexual harassment in the workplace and to ensure the safety and dignity of all employees in Delaware. This bill defines sexual harassment and makes employers responsible for the sexual harassment of an employee by a supervisor or by another employee when the employer knew or should have known about it and failed to take appropriate corrective action. Moreover, this bill prevents an employer from retaliating against an employee for filing a discrimination charge. This bill includes a requirement that the Department of Labor create an information sheet pertaining to sexual harassment that employers must distribute to employees. Employers having more than 50 or more employees in Delaware will be required to provide sexual harassment training to all employees and supervisory employees which must be conducted every 2 years. This bill also empowers the Department of Labor to investigate violations of this Act and gives the Department jurisdiction over all sexual harassment cases which includes an administrative process. This bill requires the Department of Labor to post the requirements in this bill on its website and perform outreach necessary to educate employers of the requirements. This bill takes effect on January 1, 2019.
Sponsored bills
This bill amends Title 18 of the Delaware Code, § 3343, by setting annual reporting requirements for insurance carriers with regard to coverage for serious mental illness and drug and alcohol dependencies. This bill also amends Chapter 35, Title 18 of the Delaware Code by adding a new § 3571T to set annual reporting requirements for insurance carriers providing mental illness and drug and alcohol dependencies benefits, and the carriers' compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. This bill also amends Title 31 of the Delaware Code, § 525, by setting annual reporting requirements for insurance carriers regarding coverage for serious mental illness and drug and alcohol dependencies for recipients of public assistance.
This Act eliminates the ability of a court to suspend a student’s driving privileges or hunting license for truancy.
This Act promotes the use of primary care by doing the following: 1. Creating a Primary Care Reform Collaborative under the Delaware Health Care Commission. 2. Requiring all health insurance providers to participate in the Delaware Health Care Claims Database. 3. Requiring individual, group, and State employee insurance plans to reimburse primary care physicians, certified nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other front-line practitioners for chronic care management and primary care at no less than the physician Medicare rate for the next 3 years. Despite the demonstrated value of primary care, access to primary care for Delawareans has become increasingly difficult because insurance reimbursement rates fail to support an adequate infrastructure. The national average for primary care spending for an insurance plan is between 6% and 8% of the insurer’s total medical expenditures. Studies recommend, and some states are actively implementing, a 12% to 15% spending rate to have an effective system. Delaware’s average insurance spending on chronic care management and primary care is between 3% and 4%. Nationally, insurance reimbursement for primary care averages between 120% and 140% of Medicare rates. In Delaware the commercial market reimburses independent primary care at rates as low as between 65% and 85% of Medicare rates. Reliable data regarding insurance spending is difficult to obtain due to a combination of contractual restrictions and an absence of mandatory health care price transparency requirements applicable to commercial plans in Delaware This Act simultaneously enacts short-term and long-term solutions to strengthen the primary care system in this State. While the Primary Care Reform Collaborative and the Delaware Health Care Commission study and development long-term recommendations, requiring insurers to reimburse for chronic care management and primary care at the Medicare rates will stabilize existing resources and provide immediate benefits. The Primary Care Reform Collaborative and the Delaware Health Care Commission have reliable data and information from the Delaware Health Care Claims Database to use in this analysis and to make recommendations that will strengthen the primary care system in Delaware.
Expedited partner therapy (EPT) is the clinical practice of treating the sex partners of patients diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease without clinical assessment of the partners. In August 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended EPT as an evidence-based option to manage chlamydial infection and gonorrhea by treating index patient’s sex partners to prevent reinfection and curtail further transmission. As of July 2017, EPT is permissible in 41 states. This Act makes EPT clearly permissible in Delaware and requires that health care professionals provide information developed by the Department of Health & Social Services when providing EPT. This Act provides immunity to health care practitioners and pharmacists acting in compliance with the statute and also provides immunity to health care practitioners who do not provide EPT and pharmacists who do not fill a prescription written under this statute if doing so would violate any of the laws that govern pharmacies and pharmacists. This Act also makes technical corrections to the definitions section to correct a reference and to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act implements the recommendations of the March 2105 Autism Educational Task Force report regarding § 1332 of Title 14, the Program for Children with Autism and its Special Staff. Enacted nearly three decades ago, this law established a network of educational programs initially within a separate school structure known as The Delaware Autism Program (DAP). Today, this network continues as a combination of both separate school programs and within local school district support services. However, the current model does not reflect current practices in special education, especially regarding inclusive education, and parents’ desire to have their children educated in their local communities. In addition, the increase in students with an educational classification of autism spectrum disorder (“ASD”) has made it difficult for the Statewide Director to provide the level of services and support that once was offered. This Act establishes the qualifications and duties of the Statewide Director and enhances the current mandatory committee structure to include a Parent Advisory Committee, in addition to the Peer Review Committee and Statewide Monitoring Review Board, to increase family input, monitoring, and protections. This Act creates a 3 year pilot program that revises the concept of DAP toward a system in which the statewide Director will work in collaboration with a team of experts to provide technical assistance and training to districts and educational entities. It allows for and provides adequate resources for all students with ASD in Delaware by eliminating the distinction between DAP-approved programs and other in-district options and by providing in-state experts at a lower cost than out-of-state residential treatment and consultants. The pilot program created under this Act makes changes that recognize and support the need for specialized technical assistance and training staff to be available to build capacity for teachers in all districts and other programs educating students with ASD. These changes expand available supports so that excellent, evidence-based training and technical assistance can be made available to all Delaware schools and the students who attend them. The pilot program created under this Act establishes a technical assistance team of educational autism specialists numbering a ratio of 1 for every 100 students (currently estimated at 15 positions). The fiscal mechanism to support the pilot program will be accomplished through mandated district participation that is consistent with the current needs-based funding system in Delaware and by redirecting state spending towards lower cost, community-based supports from out-of-state residential placements. The number of training specialists will be phased in over several years or until the pilot program ends. Finally, this Act is known as "The Alex Eldreth Autism Education Law" in memory Alex Eldreth, who passed away unexpectedly on November 24, 2017, and his dedication to this work.
This bill will increase the public transparency of education funding information by directing the Department of Education to: 1. Establish, in collaboration with stakeholders, a statewide approach for districts and charter schools for reporting expenditures at the school level and the school’s share of central office expenditures so that per-pupil expenditure data is consistent and comparable across the State. 2. Report per-pupil expenditure data with key information that provide context on differences in funding such as school type, student demographics, and student outcomes. 3. Provide optional trainings to increase understanding of the data. As a result, this bill is intended to enable all taxpayers, parents, and schools to understand their school spending and resources in order to make data-driven decisions for students.
This Act provides county and municipal police and firefighters with the same pension burial benefit that is provided to state employees effective July 1, 2016. This Act is named for Wilmington Firefighters Captain Christopher M. Leach, Lieutenant Jerry W. Fickes, and Lieutenant Ardythe D. Hope, who lost their lives fighting a house fire on September 24, 2016.
This Act increases the maximum tax credit available for owner occupied historic property by $10,000. This Act also makes a technical correction to the existing law.
This Act relates to police and fire pension funds created under Title 18 of the Delaware Code. The General Assembly created a special fund in the hopes of ensuring adequate pensions for affected police officers and firefighters, and their surviving spouses. This has not come to pass with regard to all pensions, however. By way of example only, the average surviving spouse in the Wilmington Police and Fire retirement plan receives a pension of only $10,080, which is $1,090 dollars below the 2012 poverty level. Moreover, there have been only five disbursements under the special fund in its 48 year history. To address this, the Act would allow for an additional manner of providing distributions from the related special fund established for Police and Fire pensions. Specifically, disbursements from the fund to be made under this Act would be biennial and structured in 3 categories. The 3 categories are based upon length of retirement and whether the eligible individual is a surviving spouse or receiving a disability pension.