Sen. Jack Walsh

This Concurrent Resolution commends the 2023 Delaware Behavioral Health Professional of the Year, Dana Carey, and all of the District/Charter Network Behavioral Health Professionals of the Year.

The statute in Section 1 is revised to establish that a judgment of record obtained as a result of the Director of Revenue filing the certificate under section 554 of Title 30 of the Delaware Code constitutes a judgment of record of which notice is presumed against the estate of the decedent regardless of the county in this State in which letters are granted. Section 2 modifies the deadline for having a June meeting of DEFAC to account for the for the new Juneteenth holiday. Section 3 enables the Department of Finance and the Division of Revenue to fully administer and enforce taxes where jurisdiction is assigned by the Delaware Code without reference to any specific Title. This avoids the need to revise applicable provisions of Title 30 (by enumerating each applicable title) when changes to the law make the Department responsible for the administration and enforcement of tax and tax-related laws established outside of Title 30. Section 1 of this Act applies to decedents on or at the effective date of this legislation.

This bill grants authority to the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to adopt regulations related to the operation of temporary nurse staffing agencies that staff temporary nurses in long-term care facilities in the State and assigns oversight within DHSS to the Division of Health Care Quality. The bill requires temporary nurse staffing agencies to (1) register annually with the Division of Health Care Quality; (2) validate the qualifications of all provided nurses provided; (3) maintain records of all provided nurses' credentials, job requirements, and required immunizations; and (4) provide all such records upon request to DHSS and to the long-term care facility where the employee is placed. The bill also requires temporary nurse staffing agencies to report annually to DHSS regarding various factors, including its employee placements, costs charged to long-term care facilities, and wages paid to temporary nurses.

This bill adopts a key recommendation of the Child Protection Accountability Commission Caseloads and Workloads final report approved on November 20, 2019, that Division of Family Services (DFS) caseload standards be reduced from 18 to 12 families per worker. Due to the volume of work generated by a caseload of 18 families, workers are significantly restricted in the time they can spend on critical case activities such as family engagement, assessment of safety, and face-to-face contact with children and families.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution recognizes November 2023 as "Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month" in the State of Delaware.

This Act adds provisions to Title 21 defining accessible parking spaces, incorporating federal standards for accessible parking spaces found in the Americans with Disabilities Act and applicable regulations. The Act also provides additional requirements that enhance these standards and better reflect the needs of persons with disabilities in Delaware. The Act increases the penalty associated with violating the statute that prohibits individuals who do not possess a parking placard or special license plate from parking in accessible parking spaces, or in the access aisles located next to accessible parking spaces. This Act adds provisions in Titles 9 and 22 to require county and municipal governments to adopt regulations and ordinances incorporating these requirements for accessible parking spaces, including the requirement that property owners have a permit and process to ensure compliance for new or modified accessible parking spaces, in order to increase compliance and uniformity statewide.

House Bill No. 66 adds required information to annual reports issued by the Department of Education (Department), currently known as School Performance Data Reports, and which are available on the Department’s website as the Delaware Report Card. Like House Bill No. 66, House Substitute No. 1 for House Bill No. 66 adds the following requirements: 1. That there is a link to these reports on both the home page of the Department’s website and the school choice website. 2. That these reports include a list of career pathways offered at a high school and must continue to include proficiency rates. House Substitute No. 1 for House Bill No. 66 reflects that the Department provides more education-related data than the annual reports required under existing law and that the Department has already made changes to their website in response to House Bill No. 66. The changes the Department has made makes education-related data more user friendly for the public, including links to the reports from more webpages and instructional videos to help people use the data. Specifically, House Substitute No. 1 for House Bill No. 66 differs from House Bill No. 66 as follows: 1. Does not require the ability to generate side-by-side comparisons of the Education Profiles for multiple schools or school districts so that data for multiple entities can be reviewed at the same time. This requirement is being removed because changes have been made to make these comparisons more accessible and because of the cost required to generate the side-by-side comparisons. 2. Changes the term “Education Profile” to “education-related data” to reflect the broad range of data that the Department publishes, in addition to the annual reports required under existing State and federal law. 3. Does not delay implementation of the new requirements. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual which includes revisions to clarify repetitive, confusing, or contradictory language.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution designates June 9, 2023, as "Freshwater Wetlands Day" in the State of Delaware.

This Concurrent Resolution acknowledges June 2023 as LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the State of Delaware.

This Act will establish the ability for contracted third-party agreements between select qualified private companies and the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles to process certain vehicle-related services. This will act as an additional resource if chosen by Delaware residents or their secured interests. For years, Delaware’s Division of Motor Vehicles has struggled to conduct timely vehicle processing of residents’ titling and registrations, with an average wait time exceeding 4-8 weeks for in-state and out-of-state purchases. With the population now exceeding one million residents, allowing third parties to assist in vehicle processing will ensure timely processing of motor vehicles applications while alleviating the strain on DMV locations and personnel.