| HB 21 | Signed | Minor-Brown | This Act adopts the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Compact. The Compact benefits the public by improving continuity of care, increasing license portability for advanced practice registered nurses, and increasing access to APRN care. Under the Compact, APRNs licensed in a Compact member state may practice in another Compact member state. In adopting the Compact, the state-based licensure system is preserved but communication between states is enhanced.
This Act takes limited effect for the purpose of establishing and convening the Interstate Commission of APRN Compact Administrators (Commission) to adopt rules relating to its operation when 7 states have enacted it into law. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO AN ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSE COMPACT. |
| HB 42 | Signed | Bush | This Act eliminates § 321(d) since § 321(c) sets forth the accepted process for furnishing of examination reports and hearing requests by the Commissioner. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE EXAMINATIONS. |
| HB 44 | Signed | Bush | This Act reflects the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s revisions to the Model Credit for Reinsurance Act. The revisions make the law consistent with provisions of covered agreements with the European Union and United Kingdom with respect to reinsurance collateral requirements. The changes will also provide reinsurers domiciled in National Association of Insurance Commissioners-qualified jurisdictions other than within the EU (currently, Bermuda, Japan and Switzerland) with the possibility of similar reinsurance collateral reductions. This is an accreditation bill. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CREDIT FOR REINSURANCE. |
| SB 29 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Ennis | This Act enhances 2 existing agricultural horse racing programs, the Delaware Standardbred Breeder's Program and the Delaware Certified Thoroughbred program, by providing additional funding. Under this Act, horsemen provide half of the additional funds from purse money and the State provides half of the additional funds with matching funds. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE STATE LOTTERY FUND. |
| SB 54 | Signed | Paradee | This bill makes certain technical amendments to the Delaware Voluntary Clean Energy Financing Program Based on Property Assessments (D-PACE) Act. The amendments are based upon comments received from New Castle County and the lending community. The bill clarifies the interplay between the Act and existing tax and foreclosure sale statutes and that the lien for the energy improvements will remain with the property following a tax monition sale and mortgage foreclosure. It also clarifies the authority of the Sustainable Energy Utility and third party capital providers to enforce the lien for delinquent assessments for clean energy improvements. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DELAWARE VOLUNTARY CLEAN ENERGY FINANCING PROGRAM BASED ON PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS (D-PACE) OR OTHER LOCAL ASSESSMENT STATUTE. |
| HB 86 | Signed | K. Williams | This Act provides increased funding for kindergarten through third grade students identified as eligible for basic special education services. Currently, basic special education is provided for students in fourth through twelfth grade who are identified as eligible for basic special education and related services; there is no additional unit funding for students in kindergarten through third grade who may be eligible for basic special education services. The Act adds a designation of “K-3 Basic Special Education (basic)” and over three years reduces the number of students comprising a unit from the current 16.2 to 8.4.
This Act will increase the unit count funding for K-3 Basic Special Education (basic) students by School Year 2023-2024, Fiscal Year 2024, to be consistent with the 8.4 unit of pupils currently available to students in grades 4 through 12. Sections 1 through 3 of this Act change the funding chart currently in the Code to subsections and provides for a decrease in the ratio between the number of students enrolled and the unit count for basic special education from 16.2 currently to 12.2 in Fiscal Year 2022, 10.2 in Fiscal Year 2023, and 8.4 in Fiscal Year 2024. Section 4 of this Act delays the effect of each Section until the start of each new fiscal year in the 3-year cycle over which this Act’s changes are intended to occur. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SPECIAL EDUCATION FUNDING. |
| HB 98 | Signed | Bush | This Act would allow importers to take orders from retailers any day including Sundays and holidays and process them for delivery. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 4 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS. |
| HB 104 | Signed | Griffith | This Act moves the date by which the Department of Education shall submit its annual report to the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council from August 1 to October 15 of each year. Moving the date to October 15 will better accommodate the data collection, quality control, and certification process utilized by the Department of Education. Schools and districts are required to enter their data by July 1 and the process of verifying the information and making any corrections necessary to certify the data is usually finished by October 1. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO TEEN DATING VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT. |
| SB 79 | Signed | Mantzavinos | This bill establishes the timeframe within which a property insurer must give prior written notice of its intent to cancel a policy.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROPERTY INSURANCE POLICIES. |
| SB 80 | Signed | Mantzavinos | This Act adds a provision addressing the assignability of rights under property insurance policies and authorizes a property insurance carrier to limit a policy’s assignability only to those persons or entities that have the legal authority to represent an insured.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ASSIGNABILITY OF INSURANCE CONTRACTS. |
| SB 81 | Signed | Mantzavinos | This bill allows for deviations from rating organization filings to be effective continuously until terminated with the approval of the Commissioner or subsequently modified. This change conforms the law to current practice.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE RATE FILINGS. |
| HB 133 | Signed | K. Williams | This Act changes the current evaluation system for all teachers from the former Delaware Performance Appraisal System II evaluation to a new Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System. The goal of this new evaluation system is to build a culture of professionalism and learning within every school by converting the evaluation system from a teacher-focused to a learning-focused system. It also increases accountability by requiring a beginning, middle and end of the year review of both the teacher’s professional learning goals and student improvement goals.
All teachers (not just 4-8 testing subjects) will be held accountable for student growth.
The new evaluation system will only apply to teachers. Specialists and administrators will continue to be evaluated under the Delaware Performance Appraisal System II.
Under this Act the new evaluation system will be phased in with a minimum of 3 local education agencies participating in a pilot program for academic year 2021-2022, which will sunset on June 30, 2022.
Under Section 2 and 3 of this Act, effective academic year 2022-2023, all teachers will fall under the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System and all specialists and administrators will be evaluated under Delaware Performance Appraisal System II. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EDUCATOR EVALUATIONS. |
| HB 3 | Signed | Bush | This Act incorporates recent changes adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to Model Law #805 “Standard Nonforfeiture Law – Individual Deferred Annuities” that address the impact on annuity products by the current low interest rate environment. Generally speaking, the standard Nonforfeiture Law requires that an individual deferred annuity contract provide the contract holder with a paid-up annuity or cash surrender benefits of a minimum amount if the contract holder surrenders the policy (e.g. stops making payments) during the accumulation period. The nonforfeiture amount is the deferred annuity’s accumulated value, minus certain charges (such as prior withdrawals and loans), based on interest rate minimums regulated by statute. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, market interest rates have fallen so low as to render unrealistic the old statutory rates that insurance companies were required to use in determining the amount to return to contract holders. The NAIC has determined this threatens the availability of annuity products to consumers and, as such, adopted a change to the interest rate from 1% to 0.15%. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO STANDARD NONFORFEITURE LAW FOR INDIVIDUAL DEFERRED ANNUITIES. |
| SB 40 | Signed | Brown | This bill allows the Court to suspend an amount of the fine for uninsured driving if the defendant provides evidence that they have now secured insurance, demonstrating compliance with the law.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE REQUIREMENT OF INSURANCE FOR ALL MOTOR VEHICLES. |
| SB 85 | Signed | Poore | This bill allows the Public Guardian to collect fees for services in accordance with standards to be established by the Guardianship Commission and approved by the Court of Chancery. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 12 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE PUBLIC GUARDIAN. |
| SB 91 | Signed | Gay | This Act leverages technological advances to allow Family Court the flexibility to permit litigants to publish through a legal notices website established by the Court.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including to ensure the consistency of language used throughout the provisions included in this Act. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 AND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PUBLICATION. |
| HJR 3 | Signed | Schwartzkopf | This House Joint Resolution establishes the Legislative Building Committee for the purpose of studying and recommending a plan to address the technology, security, and space needs for Legislative Hall. | ESTABLISHING A LEGISLATIVE BUILDING COMMITTEE FOR THE PURPOSE OF STUDYING AND RECOMMENDING A PLAN TO ADDRESS THE TECHNOLOGY, SECURITY, AND SPACE NEEDS FOR LEGISLATIVE HALL. |
| SB 95 | Signed | Paradee | This bill will provide Delaware students with strong academic credentials and a demonstrated commitment to volunteer public service to receive scholarship monies sufficient to cover the full cost of tuition at Delaware State University. The intent of this bill is to increase the number of students in Delaware who not only attend the University but who successfully complete degree programs. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE INSPIRE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM. |
| SB 97 | Signed | Ennis | This bill authorizes the Department of Agriculture to update the Delaware Commercial Feed Law of 1967. Changes to this law include updating language to align with current industry terminology and includes applicable language from the most recent version of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Uniform State Bill, which is designed to create uniformity amongst states. This bill authorizes the Department of Agriculture to add criteria for defining an adulterated feed and adjusts penalties for violators of this chapter. The proposed changes will provide clarity to distributers and Department staff regarding product labeling, registration, and violations as well as providing updated terminology to make regulating this program more efficient.
This bill also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 3 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COMMERCIAL FEEDS. |
| HB 141 | Signed | Minor-Brown | This Act is a Companion Bill to House Bill No. 21. It aligns the Delaware Board of Nursing statute with the APRN Compact to advance APRN practice through elimination of barriers and improving access to care for Delawareans. The Act removes the requirement for a collaborative agreement for licensure purposes although employers and health care organizations may still require one.
The Act amends the definitions of “APRN” and “full practice authority” so that they are consistent with national standards. The Act also removes the definition of “independent practice” since ,nationally, “independent practice” means having “full practice authority”. This Act grants full practice authority in conjunction with licensure and removes the current requirements for obtaining independent practice.
The Act changes the composition of the APRN Committee to include 9 APRNs and clarifies the Committee’s purpose which is to make recommendations to the Delaware Board of Nursing regarding: APRN practices, the Compact and licensure.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSES. |
| SB 106 | Signed | Wilson | This Act makes students who attend homeschools eligible for the same services for children with disabilities as students who attend private schools in a manner that allows federal funds to pay for the services. This Act is the result of discussions regarding Senate Bill No. 19, which would make homeschool students eligible for speech therapy services, and accomplishes the goal of Senate Bill No. 19 because through meaningful consultation, speech therapy services are often included in the services provided to students who attend private schools.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SERVICES FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN HOMESCHOOLS. |
| HB 161 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Bentz | This Act adds an additional classification for surgical hospitals. House Bill No. 91 adopted by the 150th General Assembly (82 Del. Laws c. 73) revised the statutory definition of hospital and classified hospitals as either General, Long-term care, Psychiatric, or Rehabilitation. The existing classifications do not include surgical hospitals, those specialized hospitals providing surgical services at a level of care higher than freestanding surgery centers but whose patients do not require all of the services provided by “General” acute care hospitals. This Act will allow the Department of Health and Social Services to license and regulate surgical hospitals providing inpatient and outpatient surgical services to patients whose duration of stay is not expected to exceed 72 hours.
This Act also makes technical corrections to existing law to make it consistent with the Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF HOSPITALS. |
| HB 171 | Signed | Bolden | Sections 1, 4, and 6 clarify that the funds to satisfy income tax withholding on a sale of real estate by a non-resident shall be derived from the net proceeds of the real estate sale and permit the filing of the deed if the closing attorney can establish that the non-resident seller did not receive any proceeds from the sale.
Section 2 allows the Division of Revenue to use its discretion to adjust the filing frequency of employers if the taxpayer can demonstrate that complying with the statute would result in a hardship. Section 2 also broadens the requirements for filing of information returns with the Delaware Division of Revenue to include any information return required to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service for payments of any type of remuneration made to Delaware resident individuals. This will provide the Division of Revenue with greater information about income received by Delaware residents to ensure that all taxable income is reported and taxed.
Section 3 corrects the recipient for donations to the Delaware Ovarian Cancer Foundation, which is now its own separate 501(c)(3) organization, allowing donations to be forwarded to them directly.
Section 5 codifies the long-standing practice of the Division of Revenue to limit Net Operating Loss deductions to those deductions that were claimed on a federal return. Because Delaware tax law starts with the income reported and deductions available at the federal level, any net operating loss that exceeds that claimed on a federal return is not permitted in the calculation of Delaware tax.
Section 7 eliminates the requirement that multiple business licenses for the same licensee be on the same licensing schedule, which will reduce the burden for both licensees and the Division of Revenue.
Section 8 clarifies the definition of “Mercantile agency or collection agency” to include those agencies involved in the collection of both commercial and consumer debt, which removes a potential ambiguity from existing language.
Section 9 provides that the sections of this act are severable in the event that one is determined to be invalid, and section 10 establishes the effective date of the legislation. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO TAX ADMINISTRATION. |
| SB 138 | Signed | S. McBride | This bill changes the requirements for members to be appointed to the Authority on Radiation Protection. It also allows for removal of a member by the Governor in certain limited circumstances, and clarifies the number of members needed to constitute a quorum. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO RADIATION CONTROL. |
| HB 190 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Griffith | This Act updates the domestic violence first offender diversion program to allow the following offenses to be eligible for the program: assault third, terroristic threatening, and criminal contempt of a domestic violence protective order or lethal violence protective order. In addition, the Act makes these same offenses ineligible for probation before judgement in the Court of Common Pleas and Family Court. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 AND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. |
| SB 145 | Signed | Poore | This Act amends the Charter of the Municipal Service Commission of the City of New Castle by granting the City Council of New Castle the power to appoint two of the three Commissioners to serve on the Municipal Service Commission, with the incumbent Mayor as the third Commissioner. This Act also sets the terms of each appointed Commissioner to 4 years, and allows the City Administrator to serve as a substitute for the Mayor on the Commission in the Mayor's absence. | AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE MUNICIPAL SERVICE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NEW CASTLE. |
| SB 162 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Hansen | This Act is a result of the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services Task Force ("the Task Force"), which was created under Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 62 and extended by House Bill No. 345, both of the 150th General Assembly. This Act fulfills 2 of the Task Force's many recommendations, by requiring that the chair or vice chair of the Advisory Council to the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services be an individual with a developmental disability, and amending the Advisory Council membership to include the following:
- 7 representatives of families, service recipients, and self-advocates who currently receive services from the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services.
- 5 representatives of a cross section of service providers in the developmental disabilities community who currently operate within the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services system, including residential service providers, day habilitation service providers, employment service providers, clinical service providers, behavioral or mental health service providers.
- 5 professional advocates, representing the following organizations: Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council, State Council for Persons with Disabilities, Disabilities Law Program at Delaware Community Legal Aid Society, Inc., The Arc of Delaware, and Center for Disabilities Studies at University of Delaware. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE DIVISION OF DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES SERVICES. |
| HB 227 | Signed | Griffith | This Act adds child abuse in the third degree to the list of enumerated criminal offenses for which, if convicted, one is by definition considered a “perpetrator of domestic violence” for purposes of this Child Protection From Domestic Violence Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHILD PROTECTION FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. |
| HB 229 | Signed | Bush | This Act authorizes the State of Delaware to execute the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Compact to protect the interest of consumers of individual and group annuity, life insurance, and disability income insurance products; to develop uniform standards for insurance products covered by the Compact; to establish a central clearinghouse to receive and provide prompt review of insurance products covered under the Compact and, in certain cases, advertisements related thereto, submitted by insurers authorized to do business in one or more compacting jurisdictions; to give appropriate uniform standards; to improve coordination of regulatory resources and expertise between state insurance departments regarding the setting of uniform standards and review of the insurance products covered by the Compact; to create the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission; and to perform these and such other related functions as may be consistent with the state regulation of the business of insurance. A compacting state includes any state which has enacted the legislation and has not withdrawn or been terminated. This Act also designates the Delaware Insurance Commissioner as the State representative to the Commission. Currently, 45 states and Puerto Rico have adopted this Compact and 1 additional state has pending legislation. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO INTERSTATE INSURANCE PRODUCT REGULATION. |
| HB 228 | Signed | Griffith | This Act adds the Delaware Combined Campaign for Justice to the 21 charitable organizations listed on the Delaware personal income tax return to which Delaware tax payers may contribute, either through paying a portion of a refund owed, or an amount in addition to taxes owed through a check off. The Delaware Combined Campaign for Justice was established in 1999 as a partnership of the Delaware State Bar Association, Community Legal Aid Society, Inc., Delaware Volunteer Legal Services and Legal Services Corporation of Delaware. The partners joined to increase the availability of civil legal services to disadvantaged people in Delaware by increasing the resources available to fund legal services. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHARITABLE DONATIONS TO THE DELAWARE COMBINED CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE THROUGH THE PERSONAL INCOME TAX RETURN. |
| SS 1 for SB 93 | Signed | Poore | This Act provides protections for consumers in connection with contracts with automatic renewal provisions. Multiple states have enacted laws regulating the automatic renewals of contracts, often described as "evergreen" clauses. These state laws are aimed at protecting consumers from unknowingly entering into these types of agreements by requiring that evergreen clauses be presented in a clear and conspicuous manner and that sellers of such contracts provide notice to consumers about an upcoming renewal.
This Act also requires sellers of such contracts to provide consumers with a means to cancel the contract that is at least as easy to use as the means available to sign up for the contract.
It also updates the language of the enforcement provision in Subchapter IV, Chapter 27 of Title 6 of the Delaware Code.
This Act is a substitute for and differs from Senate Bill No. 93 by extending the length of covered contracts from 6 months to 12 months. It also adds audio disclosure to the definition of "clearly and conspicuously" and removes the provision stating that a cancellation that is in the same medium as the medium used to enter the contract is considered "cost effective, timely, and easy to use." It further specifies that a consumer who signs up for a covered contract online must be able to cancel online.
The substitute eliminates the requirement that businesses notify consumers the date at which the contract will automatically renew if not canceled and establishes a right to cure. It also adds matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission to the exempted entities.
Finally, the effective date is changed to January 1, 2022.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO CONSUMER CONTRACTS. |
