Sen. Jack Walsh

In 2019, Delaware amended the state constitution to prohibit the denial or abridgement of equal rights under the law based on sex, and thereafter in 2020, race, color, and national origin were added. This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment to add sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability to Article I, § 21 of the Delaware Constitution to declare explicitly that protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability is one of Delaware's fundamental rights.

This Act is the final leg of a constitutional amendment that would eliminate from the Delaware Constitution the limitations as to when an individual may vote by absentee ballot. This amendment to the Delaware Constitution provides that the General Assembly shall enact general laws providing the circumstances, rules, and procedures for absentee voting.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year. This Act revises this State’s missing children laws to improve search efforts, increase collaboration between law enforcement agencies, and increase public information about missing children. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act allows the Drug Overdose Fatality Review Commission ("Commission") to review all deaths related to a drug overdose, regardless of the type of drug implicated in the overdose death. This change will allow the Commission to obtain and review all medical records, including substance abuse and mental health records, when there is a death related to a drug overdose. This approach will allow the Commission to monitor the evolving nature of societal drug use over time and make recommendations that are proactive in reducing the harm from emerging trends. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act requires that individual, group, State employee, and public assistance insurance plans provide coverage for epinephrine autoinjectors for individuals who are 18 years of age or under and must include at least 1 formulation of epinephrine autoinjectors on the lowest tier of the drug formulary developed and maintained by the carrier if the insurance plan has tiers.

This Act adds the term “adjudication” to this section of the criminal code to enable juvenile defendants to petition the court for their adjudications of delinquency to be vacated and their juvenile criminal record to be expunged in regard to crimes, other than defined violent felonies, committed as a direct result of being victims of human trafficking.

This act will allow a critical need reimbursement to be distributed directly to an institute of higher education or Secretary of Education approved Alternative Routes to Teacher Licensure and Certification program for an eligible teacher who is taking noncredit-earning seminars or workshops or credit-bearing coursework in order to attain a Standard Certification in a state-approved critical need area.

This bill increases the membership of the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council to 24 members by adding representatives from the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Criminal Justice Council, the Department of Transportation, and the Division of Professional Regulation, a person who has been a victim of human trafficking, and a person who has prior experience working with victims of human trafficking in a legal or advocacy capacity. This bill also changes the quorum for the Council from 7 members to 13.

This Act allows nurse practitioners and physician assistants to recommend medical marijuana for adult patients. This Act does not require the Department of Health and Social Services to promulgate new regulations before implementing this Act because § 10113 of Title 29 exempts amendments to existing regulations to make them consistent with changes in basic law from the process otherwise required under Chapter 101 of Title 29. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

The purpose of this Act is to achieve 2 goals: (1) Allow a person who is 18 years or older to serve alcoholic liquors or otherwise work in a taproom if the taproom has separate dining facilities that seat at least 12 people, provides complete meals, does not have a history of violating a provision of Title 4 or related regulations or being convicted of committing a crime under Title 4, and has been approved by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner (“Commissioner”) as meeting these requirements. (2) Allow a person who is under the age of 21 years to enter or remain in a taproom until 9:00 p.m. if the person is accompanied by a parent or legal guardian and the taproom has separate dining facilities that seat at least 12 people, provides complete meals, has been found by the Commissioner to have no grounds to refuse a license under § 543 of Title 4, and has been approved by the Commissioner as meeting these requirements. Under this Act, a person who is under the age of 21 years and enters or remains in a taproom that has been approved by the Commissioner under this Act may not be fined if the taproom is out of compliance with the approval. This Act provides the Commissioner with the authority to refuse to grant an approval to a taproom under this Act if any of the grounds for license refusal under § 543 of Title 4 exist.