| HS 1 for HB 33 | Signed | K. Williams | This Act increases funding for preschool children with disabilities who are not counted in either "intensive" or "complex" special education units by revising the current ratio of 12.8 students per unit to 8.4 students per unit for preschool children included in the basic unit count. This is the same ratio in effect as of July 1, 2023, for K-3 basic special education. The Act also consolidates the K-3 Basic Special Education Unit with the 4-12 Basic Special Education Unit as the ratio is the same for each group as of July 1, 2023.
This substitute bill is different from original HB33 in that it omits the “Preschool 2 Basic Special Education Unit.”
The preschool funding change is effective July 1, 2023. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FUNDING FOR PREKINDERGARTEN SPECIAL EDUCATION. |
| HB 68 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Baumbach | This Act clarifies former HB 148 from the 151st General Assembly by defining the start and end date of the 4 year lookback period that determines if a municipality, governmental unit, the University of Delaware, or Delaware State University is subject to reimbursement for an employee’s training expenses when the employee is hired by another municipality, governmental unit, the University of Delaware, or Delaware State University. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DELAWARE POLICE TRAINING PROGRAM. |
| HS 1 for HB 83 | Signed | K. Williams | This Act requires every public school and charter school to provide students enrolled in kindergarten with an oral health screening by the last student attendance day of each school year. Notification to the parent or guardian must be done and a copy of the oral health screening results sent home. A referral to a dentist, if required, will be provided by the Bureau of Oral Health and Dental Services. The Division of Public Health (DPH), through the Delaware Smile Check Program, offers school-based oral screenings, at no cost to the school districts, schools, including charter schools, or the students. This Substitute Bill takes out the requirement to advise teachers of the results of the oral health screenings, including Special Education Coordinators and Educational Diagnosticians of students with an IEP. This Substitute Bill also removes any follow-up requirements, by the school, with the student’s parent or guardian. The Substitute Bill also makes the school requirements, under this Act, contingent on the Delaware Smile Check Program remaining in effect or a comparable program to provide free oral health screenings to all enrolled kindergarten students. This Act takes effect for the 2024-2025 school year.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ORAL HEALTH SCREENINGS. |
| SB 133 | Signed | Brown | The Voluntary Assessment Center was created by legislative action in 1976 (60 Del. Laws Section 509) to allow recipients of minor traffic violations to pay the fine and costs associated with the violation without the need to appear in the Justice of the Peace Court. Section 709 (i) advises that "Payment of the prescribed fine, costs, and penalty assessment is an admission of guilt, a waiver of the right to a hearing, and a complete satisfaction of the violation." Upon payment, the Court can consider the matter closed and advise the Division of Motor Vehicles of the violation for the Division's recordance purposes. Formerly, those who were unable to pay the fine in one payment were required instead to submit to a court date (which engendered additional court costs) if only to request a payment plan - a practice that seemed patently unfair. Accordingly, in 2012, the Court established a process where the Voluntary Assessment Center could accept payment of fines incrementally. Although more equitable, this new process caused unforeseen consequences. Because the current definition of payment is the total amount due, if a person makes a partial payment but does not completely pay the balance of the fine, the Court cannot consider the matter closed. The Division is not made aware of the violation and the case remains in administrative limbo. Currently, no capiases or warrants are issued for unpaid Voluntary Assessments. Instead, the Division places a flag on an individual's license and registration. It is usually only years later when an individual goes to renew their license that they respond to the Court to complete payment. Redefining payment in the definition of this section will further streamline the Court's administrative process of maintaining the record and will report to the Division the associated data in a timely manner. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES AND PAYMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLE FINES. |
| SB 152 | Signed | Mantzavinos | This Act expands the rights of long-term care facility residents by ensuring that long-term care facility residents are entitled to care that recognizes cultural differences and preferences and that long-term care facility residents are made aware of their rights in a language and format that is accessible to the resident. This Act also requires the Department of Health and Social Services to prepare a standardized notice listing all rights detailed in § 1121 of Title 16 in a language and format that is accessible to each resident or their authorized representative.
This bill also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE RIGHTS OF LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY RESIDENTS. |
| SB 154 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Pettyjohn | This Act repeals the sunset of the Focus on Alternative Skills Training Program, which provides tuition for an eligible individual to attend an approved nondegree credit certificate program that provides industry-accepted skill training and certification. | AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 211, VOLUME 83 OF THE LAWS OF DELAWARE RELATING TO THE FOCUS ON ALTERNATIVE SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAM. |
| SB 153 | Signed | S. McBride | This Act makes changes to provisions related to behavioral health and the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health to reflect current practices. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 12, 14, 16, AND 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO BEHAVIORAL HEALTH. |
| SB 157 | Signed | Gay | This Act, the 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code, was drafted by the Uniform Law Commission in partnership with the American Law Institute. The Uniform Law Commission "provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law."
The Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") provides commercial law rules for broad categories of transactions: the sale or lease of goods, negotiable instruments, bank deposits and collections, funds transfers, letters of credit, documents of title, investment property, and secured transactions in personal property. Every state has adopted the UCC and, as a result, strong interstate markets have developed because the UCC provides the legal structure necessary to have confidence when transacting business with others.
The UCC has been revised over time as the United States' economy shifted from a goods-based economy toward one based on services, software, and information-based transactions. The 2022 Amendments to the UCC ("2022 Amendments") are yet another revision to address the changing economy. Specifically, the 2022 Amendments do all of the following:
(1) Provide updated rules for commercial transactions involving emerging technologies such as virtual currencies, non-fungible tokens (also known as NFTs), and distributed ledger technologies (also known as "blockchain").
(2) Create a new Article 12 addressing new types of property, or digital assets, defined as "controllable electronic records" ("CERs"). Examples of CERs include virtual currencies, non-fungible tokens, and electronic promises to pay.
(3) Provide new default rules to govern transactions involving these emerging technologies and clarify the UCC’s applicability to mixed transactions involving both goods and services.
(4) Update the UCC to recognize that parties often do not use paper documents and, therefore, the UCC applies equally to electronic transactions.
(5) Make additional revisions to the UCC unrelated to technological developments but necessary to provide needed clarification of the UCC.
(6) Create a new Article A to provide transition rules designed to protect the expectations of parties to pre-effective-date transactions. For example, a secured lender who has a priority security interest in collateral under the current law will retain its priority through a transition period, giving parties to preexisting transactions plenty of time to revise their agreements to comply with this Act.
This Act amends the UCC and, as such, deals only with consensual commercial transactions. It does not regulate the use of these emerging technologies, including CERs, address taxation of CERs, alter the law governing money transmitters, or revise anti-money laundering laws.
As of the introduction of this Act, the 2022 Amendments have been introduced in 21 states and the District of Columbia and enacted in 5 states (Indiana, North Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington). | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE. |
| SB 165 w/ SA 1, SA 2 | Signed | Poore | This Act amends Chapter 25, Title 24 of the Delaware Code relating to the Practice of Pharmacy. The amendments authorize pharmacists to engage in “collaborative pharmacy practice” with one or more “practitioners” meaning individuals who are authorized by law to prescribe drugs in the course of professional practice. Pharmacists may also do so pursuant to a “collaborative pharmacy practice agreement,” which means a written and signed agreement between one or more pharmacists and one or more practitioners that provides for a collaborative pharmacy practice. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PHARMACY. |
| HCR 62 | Passed | Phillips | This Concurrent Resolution proclaims June 17th as “Delaware Day of Service”. | PROCLAIMING JUNE 17TH AS “DELAWARE DAY OF SERVICE”. |
| SB 167 | Signed | Pinkney | This Act establishes a wellness program designed to improve the well-being of first responders and first responders’ immediate family members, as well as civilian employees of police, fire, and emergency medical services agencies and their immediate family members, through the provision of wellness program services by trained peer support members. Wellness program services may include counseling, spiritual guidance, and education about financial resources, health resources, legal assistance, and stress management services.
This Act extends the confidentiality privileges to include communications made by a first responder, the first responder’s immediate family member, a civilian employee, or a civilian employee’s immediate family member, to a trained peer support member providing wellness program services though a state, county, or municipal law-enforcement, fire, or emergency medical agency’s wellness program.
This Act adds chaplains to definition of “first responders”. This Act defines “civilian employee”.
This Act updates the definitions section to account for the creation of the wellness program.
This Act also revises the confidentiality exception in § 4319(d)(4) of Title 10. In current Code, the exception applies in certain instances where the first offender uses critical incident stress management (CISM) services to commit or attempt to commit “a crime or fraud or mental or physical injury to the first responder who received critical incident stress management services or another individual”. This Act replaces the quoted phrase with “‘crime’, as defined under § 233 of Title 11, or fraud.”
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. The technical changes include combining the privileges to refuse to disclose any matter and refuse to produce any object or record that are covered in § 4319(b) and (c) of Title 11 in current Code into a single subsection, § 4319(b) of Title 10. This Act updates subsection (c) so that it only contains 1 subject: that the privileges in subsection (b) only apply if the proceedings, communications, or records, including information, are obtained during the provision of critical incident stress management (CISM) services or wellness program services.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS INVOLVING FIRST RESPONDERS, CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES, OR THEIR FAMILIES. |
| SB 168 | Signed | Huxtable | This Act does all of the following:
(1) Adds a requirement that, in order for a veterinarian to practice veterinary medicine, a relationship among the veterinarian, the client, and the patient must be established and maintained. The majority of states mandate the existence of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship as a prerequisite to treating an animal and such requirement is critical to the health of animals. This requirement is also consistent with Food and Drug Administration standards.
(2) Adds a licensure exemption for veterinarians and veterinary technicians who want to practice in Delaware in connection with a State emergency.
(3) Strikes a provision that allows issuance of a temporary permit to practice veterinary medicine to an individual who has not passed the licensing examination and also requires compliance with reciprocity requirements. These two requirements, taken together, cannot be met, and consequently, the section is very confusing and misleading. Temporary licenses will still be available for veterinarians where the applicant is either being considered for licensure under the reciprocity provision or is eligible to take the licensure examination.
(4) Strikes the 7 year grandfathering provision, which was adopted when the Board first began to license veterinary technicians, and which is now expired.
(5) Allows veterinary technicians to obtain temporary licenses pending passing of the licensure examination.
(6) Gives the Board the authority to impose monetary penalties on licensees who are found to have committed regulatory or statutory violations.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act comes from the Division of Professional Regulation and has been approved by the Board of Veterinary Medicine. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO VETERINARY MEDICINE. |
| SB 170 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Hansen | This Act directs the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to work with PJM Interconnection, LLC to study the transmission impacts of offshore wind development, to work with neighboring states on offshore wind transmission, and to study and report back to the Governor and the General Assembly on a process for procuring offshore wind power. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY. |
| SB 172 w/ SA 1 | Committee | Walsh | Section 1 of this Act makes a pattern or practice of violations by a landlord of a Manufactured Home Community of subchapters I through V of Chapter 70 of Title 25 of the Delaware Code, or a provision of a rental agreement, an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud Act, subchapter II, Chapter 70, of Title 25, under specified circumstances.
Section 2 of this Act authorizes the Attorney General to file a petition to establish a receivership of a Manufactured Home Community in a Justice of the Peace Court on specified grounds after notice to the landlord.
Section 3 of this Act requires the Justice of the Peace Court to send written notice to the Director of Consumer Protection at the Department of Justice within 10 days of its receipt of a petition for tenants’ receivership under Title 25 of the Delaware Code, Sections 5901 or 7061, except in those cases where the Attorney General files the petition.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10 AND 25 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MANUFACTURED HOUSING AND TENANTS’ RECEIVERSHIP PETITIONS. |
| SB 175 | Signed | Townsend | The Other Post-Employment Benefits Fund (OPEB Fund) is used to pay the State's benefits for post-retirement health insurance under the State employees' pension plan. This Act requires that every year, at least 1% of the grand total of all General Fund operating budget appropriations for the prior fiscal year is appropriated to the OPEB Fund. The total amount of the contributions to the OPEB Fund is not allowed to exceed the annual required contribution, which is actuarially determined by the Board of Pension Trustees.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO APPROPRIATIONS FOR POST-RETIREMENT HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS. |
| SA 1 to SB 170 | Passed | Hansen | This amendment requires the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) to consult with all electric utilities in Delaware, in addition to consulting with the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Division of the Public Advocate (DPA), in the analysis of the impacts of offshore wind transmission and procurement by Delaware of electricity from offshore wind projects. It also requires DNREC to report to all electric utilities in Delaware, in addition to the PSC and the DPA, about its efforts to consult with other state energy offices in states served by the PJM Interconnection to evaluate regional electric transmission cooperation. This amendment also deletes the provision in the Bill that mandates that DNREC study the impacts on capacity and energy markets in the course of the offshore wind procurement process. | |
| SA 1 to SB 165 | Passed | Poore | This amendment deletes the word “adult” from line 28 of Senate Bill No. 165, and thus allows pharmacists to administer immunizations to minors pursuant to a valid prescription or physician-approved protocol approved by a duly licensed Delaware physician. | |
| SA 1 to SB 154 | Passed | Pettyjohn | This Amendment provides that funding for the Focus on Alternative Skills Training Program (FAST) cannot exceed $500,000 in Fiscal Year 2024 unless additional federal funds are available and that in subsequent fiscal years, funding for FAST is not to exceed $1 million. | |
| HCR 65 | Passed | Dorsey Walker | This Resolution proclaims June 19, 2023. as Juneteenth National Independence Day in Delaware and encourages the people of Delaware to reflect upon the significant roles and many contributions of African Americans and to celebrate this day with appropriate activities and events. | RECOGNIZING JUNE 19, 2023, AS "JUNETEENTH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY" IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE. |
| SA 2 to SB 165 | Passed | Poore | This Amendment clarifies "practitioners" who administer injectable medications, biologicals and immunizations are engaged in the "practice of pharmacy" as defined in the original bill. | |
| SA 1 to SB 172 | Passed | Walsh | This amendment removes that term “welfare” from line 21 of the bill. | |
