Sen. Dave Sokola

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the importance of the health and safety of student athletes, drawing special attention to the Athletes Bill of Rights created by the Youth Sports Safety Alliance. Many youth in Delaware participate in athletics. Participation in athletics by youth promotes continued participation in school and excellence in academics. Therefore, it is important to protect these student athletes while they participate in these extracurricular activities.

This is the final leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution to provide equal rights on the basis of sex. There is no Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. While Congress passed the Amendment in 1972, it was not ratified by the requisite number of states by the 1982 deadline. Delaware, however, was one of the first states to ratify the Amendment. About half of the states across the country have passed Equal Rights Amendments to their state constitutions in order to provide protection against discrimination based on sex. Without an Equal Rights amendment, women's rights and protections are limited. This Amendment is necessary to correct a constitutional shortcoming, reduce sex-based disparities and to codify our State's value of equality. Section 1 makes clear the General Assembly's intent in proposing this Amendment to the Delaware Constitution.

This Act allows Civic Associations in unincorporated areas of New Castle County to create garbage collection districts for units in their subdivision or housing development and contract for garbage collection.

This Act creates the following new tax brackets: 1. At $125,000, with a rate of 7.10%. 2. At $250,000, with a rate of 7.85%. This Act also creates a tiered reduction of the otherwise available itemized deduction based on the individual's taxable income.

This Act reaffirms the Constitutional requirement that the General Assembly appropriate money belonging to the General Fund by making clear that funds received by the State or a State agency from settlements or other final orders or judgments, other than those funds awarded specifically to a party or consumer or as attorneys' fees, or explicitly directed otherwise by law, are to be deposited to the General Fund and may not be transferred or expended until the funds are appropriated by the General Assembly. Included in the exclusion, are all funds that exist in the Delaware Code where the law provides for the money that must go to the specific fund and how the money in that fund may be spent.

This bill changes the earned income tax credit from nonrefundable to refundable. This bill creates a table for the percentage of earned income credit for tax years 2018 and after. Currently, if spouses file a joint federal return but separate State returns, only the spouse with the higher taxes due can use the State earned income tax credit. This bill eliminates that limitation starting with tax year 2018 and provides that the credit shall be divided equally between such spouses.

The continued existence and dissemination of a juvenile criminal record hampers an individual’s ability to become a successful and productive member of society. These criminal records are a hindrance to employment, education, housing, credit, and military service. This Act streamlines Delaware’s juvenile expungement code by providing the Delaware Family Court the option to immediately order an expungement in the event that a felony case was terminated in favor of the juvenile (i.e. a juvenile was found not guilty, or the charges were dropped). Delaware law currently allows the Court to do this for misdemeanor and violation cases.

Individuals who are released from prison face many hurdles as they re-enter the community, including difficulty obtaining identification documents. Lacking identification imposes additional hurdles as these individuals attempt to find housing and employment. This Act requires the Department of Correction to provide individuals who are being released from the custody of the Department of Correction ("DOC"), after 6 months of incarceration following conviction, with a Delaware Personal Credential Card ("Personal Credential"). An individual may present the Personal Credential to receive one free certified copy of the individual's birth certificate and one identification card or driver's license, if otherwise eligible to receive those documents. This Act builds on the pilot that has been in place since 2012, when the DOC partnered with the Division of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Health and Social Services to obtain identification for individuals who volunteer to participate in the I-ADAPT re-entry program. Currently, individuals in I-ADAPT receive a Prisoner Re-Entry card, valid for 1 year, that can be used to obtain to obtain a free copy of their birth certificate, if they were born in Delaware, and a free identification card, if otherwise eligible to receive one.

Currently there are 17 "check-boxes" on the Delaware personal income tax return where taxpayers may designate a portion of their refund or send additional money with their payment due to be credited as a charitable donation to various organizations. The number of organizations has continued to grow over the years without any charities being removed. As a result, a relatively stable total amount of donations is being spread across a larger number of causes, reducing the utility for any single charity and increasing the administrative burden on the Division of Revenue. This bill eliminates the two lowest grossing charitable funds - for the US Olympic Committee and for the Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Trust Fund, and replaces them with Funds for the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children and the United Way of Delaware. It also adds a provision to the code capping the number of permissible charity check-offs on the return at 21.

This Act provides school-based speech-language pathologists and audiologists who hold a current Certificate of Clinical Competence in speech-language pathology, (“CCC-SLP”) or audiology (“CCC-A”), issued by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association and who hold a current state license to practice from the Delaware Board of Speech Pathologists, Audiologists and Hearing Aid Dispensers with a base salary level of Master’s Plus 30 credits. Professionals who have a CCC-SLP or CCC-A ASHA certification have met the following rigorous academic and professional standards: 1. Successful completion of requisite academic courses by an accredited program. 2. Successful completion of supervised clinical practicum experiences in the practice of speech-language pathology or audiology. 3. Successful completion/passing score on the National Praxis Exam in speech-language pathology or audiology. 4. Successful completion of a Clinical Fellowship. This Act allows speech language pathologists and audiologists who have completed the course work required by state guidelines to apply for an additional 15 credits to move to the Master’s Plus 45 level. This Act contains a grandfather clause that allows school-based speech-language pathologists and audiologists in Delaware who have a master’s degree, a current license, and have worked as a speech-language pathologist for 20 or more years but do not have Certificate of Clinical Competence to, be granted the equivalent pay grade of Master’s Plus 30 with the same additional coursework criteria for moving to Master’s Plus 45 level.