This Senate Concurrent Resolution honors and recognizes the leadership, achievements, and sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and urges all citizens of the First State to participate fittingly in the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on January 17, 2022.
This Concurrent Resolution recognizes January 9, 2022, as "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day" in Delaware.
This resolution honors the life and legacy of former Delaware State Senator Robert L. Venables, Sr.
This Act requires a school district or charter school serving high school students to provide instruction in comparative political ideology in grade 10. The instruction must include a comparative discussion of political ideologies, including communism and totalitarianism, which conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy essential to the founding principles of the United States. The purpose of this instruction is to do all of the following: (1) Explore various political ideologies, including communism and totalitarianism. (2) Highlight the conflict other political ideologies have with the founding principles of the United States. (3) Prepare students to be responsible citizens in a free democracy. (4) Develop a recognition of and acceptance for the responsibility for preserving and defending the blessings of liberty inherited from prior generations and secured by the United States Constitution. (5) Reaffirm the commitment to freedom and democracy essential to the founding principles of the United States. This Act requires the Department of Education (“Department”) to make resources available to school districts and charter schools to assist them in providing the required instruction. Additionally, the Department is required to curate and make publicly available oral history resources, to be used along with the required instruction, that provide the personal stories of diverse individuals who demonstrate civic-minded qualities, including first-person accounts of victims of other nations’ governing philosophies who can compare those philosophies with those of the United States. This Act requires each school district or charter school to designate an individual responsible for overseeing the implementation of the instruction required under this Act. The designated individual is to report to the Department each year regarding how the required instruction has been implemented by that individual’s school district or charter school. The Department is to report each year to the Governor and General Assembly. The implementation of this Act is delayed until the 2023 through 2024 school year to give school districts and charter schools time to develop the instruction required under this Act and the Department time to curate and provide the required oral history resources.
This Resolution condemns the federal action against parents and reaffirms parents' rights to bring grievances to school boards.
This Act is called the Jamie Wolfe Employment Act in recognition of Jamie Wolfe, a powerful disability rights advocate who worked tirelessly on behalf of people with disabilities for equal rights and equal access to education, housing, competitive and integrated employment, transportation and community-based services. The Act requires that authorization to pay individuals with disabilities less than the minimum wage required to be paid to other employees will be phased out by July 1, 2023. It is consistent with the goals of the Employment First Act enacted by the 146th General Assembly and with national trends. In September 2020, the United States Commission on Civil Rights recommended that 14(c) certificates be phased out. The Employment First Oversight Commission created in the Employment First Act is charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing a plan for the phase-out and insuring that the needs of affected providers and employees with disabilities working at less than minimum wage are considered as the phase-out is implemented.
The Victims’ Compensation Assistance Program (“Agency” or “VCAP”) administers the Victims’ Compensation Fund and provides financial assistance to eligible victims of crimes to help cover the costs of a variety of services that help victims and their families begin to rebuild their lives, including lost wages, medical expenses, payment for mental health counseling, and funeral expenses. By awarding financial compensation for losses that victims sustain as a result of crime, VCAP can help alleviate the financial burden and distress that crime leaves behind. In FY 2019, VCAP paid $2,091,787.94 to and on behalf of victims of crime. VCAP is solvent and the Victims’ Compensation Fund balance as of June 30, 2020 was $4,155,111.82. This Act seeks to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of VCAP in the following ways: (1) Lifts the statutory employment cap that limited the number of employees VCAP could employ. This update will enable the Department of Justice to augment VCAP staff by utilizing grant or federal funding. (2) Codifies benefits and more clearly enumerates available benefits and increases the funeral and burial benefit to $5,000/$2,500, respectively. (3) Makes several changes to conform to the current practice, including removing the claims payment process description in § 9005(8) and § 9009, updating the claims application process in § 9009, and removing the reporting requirements in § 9017. (4) Amends § 9009(10) to give the Agency specific authority to close inactive claims. (5) Updates the list of Advisory Council members to reflect the dissolution of the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware, which became the Delaware Alliance Against Sexual Violence. (6) Expands the population of victims able to be served, including changes to ensure victims of human trafficking are eligible for compensation. (7) Extends the deadlines to request reconsideration and file an appeal with the Appeals Board and reorganizes appeals process provisions by placing them all in the same section. (8) Changes "offense date" to "sentencing date" in § 9014(c). (9) Updates the chapter so that each program is referred to by a consistent name. (10) Adds defined terms “Executive Director” and “claimant” to the definitions section and further clarifies to which category of victims parts of the Code apply. (11) Removes the term “incompetent” in favor of adopting a phrase that uses people first language. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Delaware has been irreparably harmed by the opioid crisis. In 2018, 400 people died of an overdose in Delaware, and in 2019, 431 people died of an overdose. Settlements from opioid distributors, manufacturers, and pharmacies are expected to provide significant monies over a substantial period of time to Delaware. These funds are intended to address to harm caused by the opioid crisis in our communities. This Act establishes the Prescription Opioid Settlement Fund (Settlement Fund) and Prescription Opioid Distribution Commission (Commission), to ensure that settlement money is used to remediate and abate the opioid crisis and is not diverted to other purposes. The Commission is part of the Behavioral Health Consortium and is established to ensure that decisions on how to spend funds are reached through consensus driven process that takes into account the views and experience of affected communities. The Behavioral Health Consortium will distribute money received by the Settlement Fund and the Prescription Opioid Impact Fund (Impact Fund), enacted by Senate Bill No. 34 of the 150th General Assembly, according to the recommendations of the Commission. The Commission shall seek input from the public and relevant stakeholders and shall convene a Local Government Committee to ensure that recommendations from counties and municipal governments are carefully considered. The terms of settlement agreements, bankruptcy plans, or other agreements for the payment of monies by defendants in opioid-related litigation will likely include terms that establish how the money must be spent. The Commission is required to adhere to those terms. The Commission must produce an annual report regarding the receipt and disbursement of funds. This Act preserves the status quo of the existing parties to litigation while limiting the ability for new local government opioid suits to be brought, because new lawsuits could limit the size of Delaware’s recovery in global settlements that are expected to be reached. This Act repeals the sunset of the Prescription Opioid Impact Fee (Impact Fee) and Impact Fund It also repeals the report requirement for the Impact Fund because the information in that report will be included in the new report that the Commission must produce. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 4 of Article VIII of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of three-quarters of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to appropriate funds to a county or municipality. This Act also requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a charter issued to a municipal corporation.
Recent high-profile attacks on judges and their families are a constant reminder to those that choose public service that they may be doing so at the risk of their and their loved ones’ lives. The death of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas’ son, Daniel Anderl, in New Jersey is tragically just one example – numerous instances of threatening and harassing behavior targeted at judicial officers rarely make prime time news but nonetheless impacts them. The rise and use of social media and online access to information has made it more difficult for judicial officers to maintain their privacy. This Act would allow judicial officers to make a written request that their personal information not be published and remain confidential. The Act takes effect 1 year after its enactment to allow for implementation.
This Act clarifies that yard waste is included in the types of trash and litter that it is illegal to discard on a highway. This Act also defines “yard waste”. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute Bill differs from Senate Bill No. 47 by removing all of the following to avoid a potential conflict of the changes exceeding the scope of the bill’s title: (1) The upper limit to the fine for a first violation of subsections (a), (b), (c), or (d) of § 4189 of Title 21. (2) The changes addressing the redesignating error. (3) The revision of the word “section” to “subsection” in the penalty provision regarding the penalty for violating all subsections besides subsection (e) of § 4189 of Title 21.
