Sections 1 through 6 of this Act revise the State's existing child abuse laws as follows: (1) Revises Child Abuse in the Third Degree by removing extraneous language and redesignating it as Child Abuse in the Fourth Degree. (2) Revises Child Abuse in the Second Degree by redesignating it as Child Abuse in the Third Degree and making it a class D felony. (3) Revises Child Abuse in the First Degree by removing extraneous language, adding a sentence enhancement for certain aggravating factors, and redesignating it as Child Abuse in the Second Degree. (4) Creates a new crime of Child Abuse in the First Degree, a class A felony, when a person intentionally or recklessly causes serious physical injury to a child and that injury causes permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment of health, or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily organ. (5) Creates a new crime of Child Torture, a class B felony. (6) Creates a new crime of Continuous Child Abuse when a person intentionally or recklessly engages in 3 or more acts of child abuse or child torture over a period of time not less than 3 weeks in duration. Sections 7 through 9 and 11 through 14 of this Act make conforming amendments to the Delaware Code based on the revisions made by Sections 1 through 6 of this Act. Section 10 of this Act designates Child Abuse in the First Degree and Child Abuse in the Second Degree as violent felonies.
Sponsored bills
This bill clarifies and confirms that utilities and farm customers may enter into contracts, such as power supply agreements, that specify how Excess kWh Credits will be applied at the end of an annual billing period.
This bill authorizes the City of Seaford to incur short or long-term debt for state or federal revolving loan funds for critical water, sewer, stormwater, or wastewater treatment facilities or projects from state or federal revolving loan funds without having to meet special election requirements otherwise required by the charter for incurring such debt.
This Act is a result of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee's review of the Tourism Advisory Board ("Board"). First formed in 1981, the Board has served in an advisory role to the Delaware Tourism Office, Division of Small Business, and the Department of State. The Board's primary purpose is advocating for and promoting tourism in Delaware. Its duties include researching and studying matters appropriate to best support the Delaware Tourism Office functions. The Board was once heavily involved in providing the Tourism Office with advice and support. By 2013, however, the Tourism Office's need for the Board's advice and support decreased, as the Tourism Office's staffing and funding structure were improved under the Delaware Economic Development Office. Now under the Division of Small Business, the work of the Tourism Office is captured in the Division's annual report, which has not referenced the Board for at least the last 5 years. The Board's only official act since 2018 was a letter to the General Assembly to support the inclusion of short-term rentals under the State's Public Accommodations Tax. Over the last 10 years, the Tourism Office has run a successful tourism program without the advice or support of the Board, including winning prestigious industry awards, launching marketing initiatives, holding workshops to support the tourism industry, and releasing the latest Value of Tourism publication in 2019. For these reasons, and with the support of the Tourism Office, the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee concluded that, although the Board once served an important role in tourism in Delaware, the Board is no longer meeting its statutory duties or fulfilling a state need, and that the Board should be terminated. This Act therefore terminates the Tourism Advisory Board.
This Act is a result of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee's review of the Delaware State Arts Council, and does the following: - Removes or updates outdated language. - Clarifies Council members' terms. - Updates the method for chair selection and provides that this update does not take effect until the current chair resigns or the chair position is otherwise vacant. - Clarifies quorum. - Clarifies that the Delaware Division for the Arts provides reasonable staff support to assist the Council. - Clarifies the Council's authority to create subcommittees. - Clarifies that Council members may participate in the grant review process as needed. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This bill would allow the City of Seaford to authorize artificial entities, limited liability corporations' partnerships, and trusts to vote in Municipal elections held in Seaford following the principle of "one person/entity/one vote".
This legislation is an attempt to strike a balance between the need to protect hospital staff, hospital patients, and the public from harm during a State of Emergency, pandemic, or infectious disease outbreak with the expectation that patients should be able to receive support from their family and spiritual counselors during a time of personal crisis. This act shall be known as "The No Patient Left Alone Act." Specifically, it migrates decision-making authority on visitation policies from elected and unelected state officials to the medical personnel operating Delaware’s hospitals – the trained professionals best positioned to make these difficult decisions during an especially challenging time. While it is the intention of this act to facilitate limited in-person patient visitation, its gives hospitals and designated medical professionals broad authority and discretion to safeguard the welfare of all involved parties. Hospitals would be able to: restrict the number of visitors patients could receive daily; require visitors to undergo and pass a specified health screening; and use personal protective equipment while visiting. Hospitals would be able to specify the required personal protective equipment, making it available for visitors to purchase on-site, subject to availability. Entry could be denied to visitors that failed their health screenings; were found to have a communicable disease; were found to have been exposed to a communicable disease; or failed to sign a statement indicating that they understood the visitation policy, and held the hospital and its staff harmless for all assumed risk directly associated with the primary cause of the State of Emergency, pandemic, or infectious disease outbreak. Attending physicians and other medical professionals designated in the bill would retain the authority to deny in-person visitation if they deemed their patients would be at risk for contracting an infectious disease or if they believed visitation posed a serious community health risk. Such determinations would be valid for up to seven days and subject to renewal. Hospitals could deny visitation if a state agency regulation, federal order, federal law, or federal regulation required it. If a prospective hospital visitor were denied in-person visitation with patients, the hospital would be required, to its best efforts, to develop alternate visitation protocols that would allow visitation to the greatest extent safely possible. This could include, but not be limited to, streaming audio and video. Hospitals could not prohibit in-person visitation by a religious counselor to a seriously ill or dying patient, providing that the counselor complied with all visitation mandates established pursuant to this act. A visit by a religious counselor would not be counted against any daily visitation limit set by the hospital. The Department of Health and Social Services would be responsible for overseeing the implementation, operation, and enforcement of this act. Hospitals could be subject to fines for violating the terms of this act, providing the violations continue after the hospitals have been informed of the need to take corrective action. This measure would become effective 180 days after its enactment. This substitute bill differs from the bill it replaces in the following ways: • It eliminates the liability provisions previously contained on lines 56 through 62, and line 103, replacing it with a new liability section - 1014A (c)(3)(E) - that is more refined and requires a signed acknowledgment by the visitor of the risk they are assuming. This acknowledgement does not allow the hospital or personnel to be held harmless for intentional misconduct or gross negligence. • It adds the terms “advanced practice clinician, or chief medical officer” to the sections previously on lines 63 through 67 dealing with the healthcare professionals authorized to restrict visitation for justifiable medical or public health reasons. • Adds the term “state agency regulation” to the section previously on lines 48 through 50 that specify the reasons a hospital may be compelled to deny visitation. • Rewrites the section previously on lines 41 through 47 to improve the clarity of the list of conditions under which a hospital can deny entry to, or remove a visitor from, the hospital's premises. • Corrects language previously on lines 39 through 40 to reflect an earlier change to the bill that deals with the requirement for visitors to wear personal protective equipment, as stipulated by the hospital, when visiting a hospital patient. • Adds a new section - 1014A (i) - stipulating that other than the potential restrictions stipulated in Subsection (c) and Subsection (e) a hospital may not prohibit in-person visitation by a doula providing doula services as defined in § 6536A of Title 11 with a pregnant or postpartum person.
This Act creates certain uniform, minimum requirements for public notice related to permits and permit renewals issued by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. In particular, the notice must include instructions for electronic submission of public comment or request for hearing, the permit application to which the notice applies must be available electronically and a link to a page where the application may be accessed electronically shall be provided in the text of the notice, a copy of the notice shall be posted on the Department's website in addition to whatever other means of delivery is required for the notice, and elected officials whose district includes the location of the permitted activity must be individually notified by e-mail. Where the application materials are too voluminous to post online the Department may provide instructions for alternative access. Conforming and technical changes are made to other parts of the Code that deal directly with public notice of permit applications. The Act is effective 180 days after its enactment.
This Act corrects the Delaware crisis text number and the National Suicide Prevention call or text line that is required to be printed on pupil identification cards for all public schools serving pupils in grades 7 to 12 and for all students attending public institutions of higher learning in Delaware. This Act takes effect for the 2023-2024 school year.
This act would require the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to obtain the consent of the General Assembly before promulgating any regulations restricting the sale of fuel-powered cars, trucks, and SUVs in Delaware. This Act does not change the emission standards fuel-powered vehicles must currently meet. The provisions of this bill would be retroactive to March 1, 2023.