This Act amends Section 2603 of Title 16 to require the Division of Public Health to provide the results of lead screenings or tests to school nurses and require contracts or computer upgrades to include lead results.
Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 252 is identical to Senate Bill No. 252 except that SS 1 for SB 252 corrects a spelling error in the synopsis to avoid confusion. This Act requires that the Department of Education (Department) perform audits of educator preparation programs (program) to assess compliance with the evidence-based reading instruction requirements, known as the "science of reading", that were enacted on June 30, 2021, by Senate Bill No. 133 (151st). If a program is not compliant with these requirements, the audit findings must specifically identify each area in which the program is not compliant, and the Department must require that the program take corrective action for each non-compliant area. If a program is compliant with all of the science of reading requirements, the Department shall award the program a specific distinction. This Act also requires that the Department use these audits to identify how teacher preparation in reading instruction can be improved and that the audit findings be included in the reports the Department already publishes about educator preparation programs.
Maddy summaryThis bill mandates that Medicaid in Delaware cover doula services for pregnant and birthing individuals, affecting all health insurance carriers within the state. It requires coverage for three prenatal visits, three postpartum visits, and attendance during labor, with specific provisions for additional postpartum visits if recommended by a licensed medical professional. To implement this, the state must create a certification process for doulas and set reimbursement rates that ensure a livable income for those providing the services. The law officially took effect on January 1, 2024, and was signed into law by the Governor.
This Act creates a 10-year program to address the lack of affordable housing in Delaware by establishing statewide limitations on the amount that rent can be increased as follows: 1. When a rental agreement is renewed, the rent increase may not exceed 5% of the previous rent unless the 36-month average annual increase of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) is greater than 5%. If the 36-month CPI-U is greater than 5%, the rent may be increased by no more than 7% of the previous rent. 2. For a new rental agreement, the amount rent can be increased from the previous rent is as follows: • If the amount of the previous rent is equal to or exceeds the Fair Market Rent (FMR), the rent may not exceed the previous rent plus the amount allowed for a rent increase for the renewal of a rental agreement. • If the amount of the previous rent plus 7% of the FMR equals or exceeds the FMR, the rent may not exceed the previous rent plus the amount allowed for a rent increase for the renewal of a rental agreement. • If the amount of the previous rent plus 7% of the FMR equals less than the FMR, the rent may not exceed the previous rent plus 7% of the FMR. The limitations on the amount of rent under this Act do not apply to any of the following: • Owner-occupied structures with 2 dwelling units. • Rental agreements when the amount of a tenant's rent is governed by federal regulations or guidelines. • A rental unit that has not been subject to a rental agreement during the previous 12-month period. This Act requires that the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) annually do all of the following: • Calculate and publish the 36-month CPI-U for New Castle County and for Kent and Sussex counties. • Publish the FMR for each county. • Create and publish an explanation of the limitations on the amount of rent under this Act. • Compile a report regarding the effectiveness of the limits on the amount of rent under this Act. This Act also requires that DSHA establish procedures to annually collect and analyze rental housing data in this State to measure the supply and availability of rental housing, including the amount of rent for rental units and other operating characteristics. Beginning January 1, 2026, landlords must annually provide specific data for rental units to DSHA. If a landlord refuses or fails to comply with the data reporting requirement, the penalty for the first occurrence is a warning and opportunity to comply and for subsequent violations, a civil penalty that does not exceed $150 for each occurrence. Finally, if House Bill No. 381 (152nd) is also enacted, this Act requires that Delaware Real Estate Commission’s comprehensive, statewide rights & responsibilities guide for landlords and tenants include information about requirements related to reporting rental unit data and the website where this data is published. Under existing law, this Act does not apply to leases of lots for manufactured homes under Ch. 70 of Title 25. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Concurrent Resolution establishes the Public Education Funding Commission to continue the comprehensive review of public education funding for all students and populations served by district and charter schools, develop a roadmap of recommendations to implement improvements to the public education funding system, and serve as an ongoing body to review the funding annually and recommend updates and changes. The Commission will hold its first meeting by October 1, 2024, and issue its first recommendations by October 1, 2025, so the recommendations may be considered for inclusion in the Governor’s recommended Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
This Concurrent Resolution supports the Redding Commission for Educational Equity’s recommendations to move immediately to support Christina School District’s City of Wilmington students and to plan for the eventual withdrawal of the Christina School District from the City of Wilmington.
This Senate Joint Resolution directs the Office of Child Care Licensing to adopt an electronic record and filing system that will modernize the State’s child care system. The OCCL must provide a report regarding the adoption of an electronic record and filing system by January 31, 2025 with a plan to implement the system by June 1, 2026.
This Act adds procedural requirements to meetings of the State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC), revises the membership of the SEBC, and requires that the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources inform State employees and retired State employees (eligible pensioners) about changes in benefits coverages affecting eligible pensioners who are receiving or eligible to receive retirement benefits under the state employees' pension plan, including proposed changes. This Act adds the following requirements to SEBC meetings: 1. If the SEBC or a subcommittee is holding a virtual meeting, the chair or vice-chair must attend at the anchor location. 2. The chair of a subcommittee must be a voting member of the SEBC. 3. The SEBC must approve a request for proposals to select a carrier or third-party administrator for the health care insurance plan for State employees or eligible pensioners during an open meeting and that the draft request for proposals must be included with the meeting notice and agenda. 4. Adds standard language for the SEBC regarding the conduct of open meetings by public bodies, including requirements for quorum and when a member designates another individual to attend a meeting. This Act revises the membership of the SEBC by doing all of the following: 1. Removes the Delaware retiree appointed by the Governor and adds 2 members who are Delaware residents eligible to receive health care insurance under Chapter 52 of Title 29 under a pension or retirement plan. The President Pro Tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives each appoint 1 of these members. 2. Makes the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources a non-voting member of the Committee. 3. Changes the leadership of the SEBC so that only the Director of the Office of Management and Budget serves as chair and the vice-chair is elected annually by the members of the Committee. The vice-chair must be a voting member of the Committee and may not be a cabinet secretary or hold a position of equivalent rank in the executive branch. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act is known as the “Delaware State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC) Transparency and Accountability Act”.
This Act is a substitute for House Bill No. 147. Like House Bill No. 147, this Act provides a mechanism for the nonprobate transfer of real estate. This is done by permitting an owner of an interest in real estate to execute and record a transfer on death (TOD) deed designating a beneficiary who will automatically receive the real estate on the owner's death without a probate procedure. During the owner's lifetime the beneficiary of a TOD deed has no interest in the real estate and the owner retains full power to transfer or encumber the real estate or to revoke the deed. Like House Bill No. 147, this Act adopts the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act authored by the Uniform Law Commission. The Uniform Law Commission “provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law.” The Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act has been enacted in 18 states (including Virginia) and the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a substantially similar law has been enacted in 11 states. The Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act is pending before 3 state legislatures and has been enacted in New Hampshire and Utah this year. This Act differs from House Bill No. 147 as follows: (1) By making clear that a transfer of death deed takes precedence over any contrary instruction in a will to transfer the same property. (2) By making clear in the optional forms included in this Act, which may be used to create a transfer on death deed or revoke a transfer on death deed, that a transferor is a grantor and a beneficiary is a grantee. This change is made to assist the Recorders of Deeds in integrating the forms in their computerized databases. (3) By authorizing the Registers of Wills to adopt a form to be used by a beneficiary to provide notice of the death of a person whose property has transferred to the beneficiary by transfer on death deed. (4) By authorizing a beneficiary to file with the Register of Wills the death certificate of a person whose property has transferred to the beneficiary by transfer on death deed. (5) By making abundantly clear that which is already permitted under the law of this State, that a person may obtain from the Office of Vital Statistics a death certificate to establish their legal right to property and may disclose that death certificate to the Register of Wills to prove the person’s legal right to property. (6) Under Section 3 of this Act, clarifying that an individual who executed a transfer on death deed does not die seized of the property and, therefore, the property is not required to be included on an inventory and appraisal to the Register of Wills. (7) Making a clarification in § 5402 of Title 30 contained in Section 5 of this Act. (8) Delaying the effect of this Act until 90 days after its enactment into law. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act is the first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution to make technical corrections to the Delaware Constitution. First, this Act makes the language of the Delaware Constitution gender silent. Senate Bill No. 97 (152nd General Assembly), enacted as Chapter 42 of Volume 84 of the Laws of Delaware, directed the Code Revisors to use gender silent techniques to ensure masculine or feminine pronouns are not used in Delaware Code unless the usage requires otherwise. Thus, instead of drafting a law to say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if he or she deems him or her qualified”, following gender silent techniques the law would say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if the Governor deems the individual qualified.” This technique has the added benefit of providing clarity as many times use of multiple masculine or feminine pronouns can result in confusion as to which noun the pronouns refer. This Act would apply this same drafting technique to the Delaware Constitution. This action is consistent with the General Assembly’s amendment of the Constitution in 1999 following the adoption of a law directing the Code Revisors to gender neutralize or otherwise ensure that a solely masculine or feminine designation never occurs unless it could only apply to one gender. Second, this Act makes additional technical corrections identified by the General Assembly's Division of Research. Specifically, these technical corrections include the following: (1) Officially authorizing the headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution as the headings are contained in the “Constitution of the State of Delaware, Adopted 1897, As Amended”, as published by the Delaware Code Revisors in the Delaware Code. The headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution are not original to the Constituiton adopted in 1897. These headings were added during the 1953 revision to the Delaware Code. Since the 1953 revision to the Delaware Code, publication of the Constitution has included headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution in the version of the Delaware Constitution published in the Delaware Code. Almost immediately after the 1953 revision to the Delaware Code, the General Assembly began enacting new constitutional amendments with headings and amending existing Sections of the Delaware Constitution using the headings provided or making amendments to the headings provided. However, these headings were not officially authorized by the General Assembly. Consistent with § 306 of Title 1 of the Delaware Code, the intent of authorizing all headings in the Delaware Constitution is for the purpose of convenient reference, not as an interpretive tool for the courts. (2) Based on the adoption of headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution, removing existing Section numbers and relying instead on the adopted headings. (3) Consistently using the series (Oxford) comma. (4) Implementing a consistent hierarchy scheme and naming, consistent with the Delaware Code. (5) Implementing a consistent scheme for naming, capitalization, and citing of references to provisions of the Delaware Constitution. (6) Implementing a consistent scheme for numbers used for time, dates, and money by using the numerical form of the number only. (7) Capitalizing consistent with standard capitalization rules. (8) Replacing references to “this amended Article IV of this Constitution” with “this Article”. (9) Replacing references to “this amended Article IV of this Constitution becomes effective” with “May 14, 1951”, which is the date the referenced amendments took effect. (10) Removing usages of “but not limited to”. (11) Removing from § 8 of Article IV a definition providing that “Supreme Court”, as used in § 4 of Article V, means the Superior Court and replacing “Supreme Court” in § 4 of Article V with “Superior Court” for clarity. (12) Removing § 11(c) of Article VIII from the Constitution. This provision was not intended to be included in the Constitution as it was drafted as a separate bill section of the bill that proposed and concurred in the constitutional amendment creating § 11(a) and (b). It was intended to apply only to taxes or licenses fees authorized by the General Assembly but not yet effective and so not intended to be included in the Constitution. (13) Inserting the effective date of the constitutional amendment that enacted § 12 of Article VIII for clarity. (14) Correcting misspellings and misused words. (15) Making corrections to Section headings. (16) Making technical changes to § 4A of Article V, including to remove an “either” that is inappropriately used in a list of more than 2 items. (17) Removing the hyphen in “Lieutenant Governor” and “Attorney General”. (18) Changing references to “the State” to “this State”. (19) Removing usages of “said”. Amending the Delaware Constitution requires not only the passing of the changes in this Act, but also passage of the same changes after the next general election by the next General Assembly. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend the Delaware Constitution.
