Sen. Jack Walsh

Maddy summaryThis bill officially designates October 2024 as "Depression Awareness Month" throughout the State of Delaware. It directly affects residents by encouraging the state to promote understanding of depression as a treatable medical condition rather than a personal weakness. The resolution includes a general encouragement for expanded efforts to inform Delawareans about depression awareness, but it does not create new funding, mandate specific programs, or alter existing laws.

Maddy summaryThis bill designates June 2024 as Myasthenia Gravis Awareness Month in Delaware to highlight a neuromuscular disorder that causes muscle weakness and fatigue. The resolution aims to increase public understanding of the condition's symptoms, such as drooping eyelids and breathing difficulties, to encourage early detection and support for affected individuals. By officially recognizing this month, the state intends to draw attention to the disease and the advocacy work of organizations like the Muscle Movement Foundation.

This Act makes changes to the Paid Family and Medical Leave Program. It removes the employer as the party responsible for making eligibility determinations and claims decisions and instead reallocates this responsibility to the Department of Labor and gives the Department authority to enter into contracts with other entities to review and adjudicate claims for benefits. This Act makes other changes throughout Chapter 37 of Title 19 concerning eligibility criteria and requirements for the Paid Family and Medical Leave Program. It clarifies that schools are not exempt from being considered employers; clarifies that family leave benefits are not payable for time taken after the death of an individual for whom an employee is on approved family leave; removes the ability of employers with fewer than 25 employees to elect to provide reduced parental leave; removes a provision that results in the aggregation and potential capping of benefits for employees who work multiple jobs with the potential for employees to pay more in contributions and receive less in benefits than they would otherwise be due; requires the Department to set contribution rates, statewide average weekly wages, and maximum benefits; removes a provision authorizing employers to require that payment be made concurrently or otherwise coordinated with payment made or leave allowed under the terms of disability or family care leave under a collective bargaining agreement or employer policy; removes a provision allowing employers to require employees to use accrued paid time off before accessing family and medical leave benefits and count that accrued paid time off toward the total length of leave allowed under Chapter 37 of Title 19; authorizes an employee an option to use a private review process of a private plan’s denial of benefits prior to appealing to the Department; clarifies that denials of claims are subject to the appeal provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act; and clarifies that employers who violate the requirements of Chapter 37 of Title 19 are subject to a penalty only where the violation is due to wilful misconduct or gross negligence. This Act makes changes to ensure that child support obligations are fulfilled and benefit checks account appropriately for child support deductions and to allow the Department to make garnishments to enforce judgments obtained under this chapter. This Act also updates relevant sections of Title 13 to allow for child support deductions of PFMLA benefits as appropriate. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act eliminates the requirement that a school, school district, or licensed child care provider keep community notifications in a binder. Instead, schools, school district, or licensed child care providers are required to provide all of the following information upon request by staff, faculty, or a legal guardian: 1. Notification that searchable records available to the public can be obtained at a police agency or the Delaware State Bureau of Identification (“SBI”). 2. Notification that the public can register for community notifications on the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry website. 3. The URL for the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry website. Additionally, the school, school district, or licensed child care provider must post the information on its website. If it does not have website, then the school, school district, or licensed child care provider must send the information to staff, faculty, and a legal guardian of an enrolled child in writing at least annually. The Act also clarifies that sex offender registry information must be available on the Internet on the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry website. The requirement that schools, school districts, and licensed child care providers keep binders was enacted in 2002, based on recommendation from the Community Notification Task Force that schools have a role in community awareness. However, this requirement has created financial, administrative, and emotional burdens for staff who maintain the binders. The binders are rarely reviewed by the public and they do not necessarily provide up-to-date information or information on sex offenders in the immediate geographic area of the school, school district, or licensed child care provider. Additionally, in its March 31, 2002, report, the Community Notification School Task Force found that schools do not have the expertise to answer inevitable questions regarding the nature of particular offenses or the risk posed by particular offenders, and that it is not an appropriate role for educators to answer those questions. Federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) guidelines require law enforcement to keep a registry of sex offenders and to provide public notification. Specifically, the guidelines require law enforcement to notify schools, but do not require schools to provide access to sex offender records. Instead, federal law enacted in 2006, 34 U.S.C. § 20920, requires states to provide public access to sex offender registry information on the Internet. The SBI maintains the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry on its website, which allows the general public to find information about registered sex offenders by searching the offender’s information or by searching in a geographic radius. The website also allows the public to sign up for e-mail notifications regarding sex offenders who appear on the website. The website is updated every Friday. It is easily accessible to most of the public, including on computers at public libraries. Additionally, the public can request sex offender registry information in-person at a Delaware State Police troop. The public also can call the SBI for information. Certain municipal police agencies, such as the City of Dover Police Department and the Newark Delaware Police Department, also provide access to community notifications for offenders located in the municipality on the agency’s website. Law-enforcement agencies are better equipped than schools or licensed childcare providers to answer questions about the registry. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

The primary purpose of this Act is to remove the requirement that a public school district employee who donates leave to another employee must donate 2 days of leave for the other employee to receive 1 day of leave. Further, this Act repeals Chapter 187 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware ("this law"). Adopted in 2017, this law was designed to provide full-time employees of the State, including employees of school districts, with the ability to donate leave to other employees for use in connection with the birth or adoption of a child under 6 years of age. This law has never taken effect as the law does not take effect until the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") receives a letter from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") stating that the tax treatment of the expansion of the donated leave program contemplated by this law will receive the same tax treatment as Delaware’s current donated leave program. OMB has not requested this letter from the IRS because, based on OMB's research, OMB does not believe this law would receive the same tax treatment by the IRS and because the General Assembly subsequently enacted Chapter 285 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware, which provides 12 weeks of paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child 6 years of age or younger for those continuously employed for at least 1 year as full-time employees of this State, including employees of school districts. Sections 1 and 2 of this Act re-enact portions of Chapter 187 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware that would have also applied to the existing donated leave program for catastrophic illness. Specifically these provisions are intended to do the following: (1) Clarify how much leave employees of a public school district who do not accrue annual leave must use before being eligible for donated leave. (2) Clarify the interaction between donated leave and leave available under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including transferring existing definitions to a central definition section and transferring provisions that are substantive law out of defined terms. This Act is named in honor of Christopher Chujoy, a special education instructional aide in the Red Clay Consolidated School District. Mr. Chujoy was diagnosed in August 2022 with stage IV cancer. Mr. Chujoy used up all of his available sick time before his passing and his situation raised the issue that is the primary purpose of this Act.

The Delaware National Guard is in need of military judges and wants to use qualified military judges who are retired from the Delaware National Guard.

This Act creates a new state-level Department of Veterans’ Affairs, headed by a cabinet-level Secretary appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Department will take over most of the duties currently handled by the Commission on Veterans’ Affairs and its staff. The Commission will continue in its current form, but under the Department of Veterans’ Affairs rather than the Department of State, and it will continue to advise on the duties of the Department and make recommendations regarding the welfare of veterans in the State. The Department will assume the assets and liabilities of the Commission and current staff of the Commission will become staff of the Department.

This bill provides important consumer protections for property insurance contracts by improving the reliability of mailed notifications of policy cancellation or renewal. Section 1 of this bill requires insurers to deliver any homeowners’ notices of cancellation or nonrenewal by USPS certified mail or USPS Intelligent Mail barcode. Further, whereas currently an insurer can cancel or non-renew a policy because of two non-weather-related claims over the lifetime of the policy, this legislation provides a reasonable claims lookback period for non-weather-related claims, as is already the case for claims in other portions of this subsection of the Code. Section 2 of this bill precludes an insurance carrier from refusing to renew a homeowners’ policy based on non-weather claims unless 2 or more claims occur within the 36-month period immediately preceding the expiration of the current policy period.

Maddy summaryThis bill designates October 6, 2024, as "National Coaches Day" throughout the State of Delaware to honor sports coaches. It serves as a formal recognition of the role coaches play in teaching life skills and motivating athletes, rather than creating new laws or funding. The resolution applies to all sports coaches within the state and marks the date as an official observance.

Maddy summaryThis bill is a concurrent resolution that officially designates June 2024 as Pride Month in Delaware. It does not create new laws or change state policies but serves to acknowledge the historical significance of the LGBTQ+ community and its ongoing fight for equality. The text highlights the progress made since the 1969 Stonewall riots while noting that discrimination and hate crimes against LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly transgender people, remain concerns. By recognizing this month, the legislature aims to show support for the community and reaffirm its commitment to fairness and dignity for all Delaware residents.