| SB 93 | Signed | Walsh | This bill amends the Delaware Public Employment Relations Act by requiring that the Board, consistent with the Board’s Rules and Regulations, issue written decisions following hearings on unfair labor practice charges within 30 days of the close of the record. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ACT. |
| SB 92 | Signed | Walsh | This bill amends the Delaware Public Employment Relations Act by expanding the jurisdictional application of the Act to employers with less than 100 employees and as few as 25 employees. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ACT. |
| HB 4 w/ HA 2 | Signed | Longhurst | This Act is Nolan’s Law. The purpose of this legislation is to provide more behavioral health supports to school districts and charter schools in the aftermath of a school-connected traumatic event, which is defined as the death of any student, educator, administrator, or other building employee of a public school.
The Department of Education is charged with developing guidance, best practices, and written resources for schools dealing with a school-connected traumatic event. The Department must consult with behavioral health specialists and school-based mental health professional organizations such as NAMI, Delaware, Delaware Association of School Psychologists, Delaware School Counselors Association, and the School Social Workers Association of Delaware. The Department must finalize these items by January 1, 2024.
This legislation also requires the Department to cover the costs of grief counseling offered to students for up to thirty days after a school-connected traumatic event.
In an effort to create a more standardized approach for the occurrence of a school-connected traumatic event, this bill charges each school district and charter school to establish a detailed crisis response policy that must meet a minimum number of required policies and procedures. Policies must be adopted by the school district or charter and distributed to the Department of Education by September 1, 2024.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR SCHOOL TRAUMA. |
| HB 3 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Longhurst | According to a recent CDC survey, the COVID pandemic exacerbated an existing mental health crisis for students. One in 5 school aged children has a mental health condition, and 45% of children may have experienced a traumatic event. This bill provides for excused absences for the mental or behavior health of a student and requires that any student taking more than 2 such excused absences will be referred to a behavioral health specialist. This bill provides a supplemental tool to identify students struggling with mental and behavioral health issues and legitimizes these struggles faced by many students. Moreover, this bill makes clear that the mental and behavioral health of students is a priority in this State. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 RELATING TO SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. |
| SB 129 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Walsh | The Act updates the Delaware Code concerning animal shelter standards and treatment of animals in shelters to reflect best practices, which are currently already being followed by most shelters. The Act also fills in gaps in existing law, such as by requiring that animals be vaccinated against rabies before adoption or release and by setting standards for feeding and access to water, facilities and enclosures, and sanitation and disease control.
The Act also makes technical changes 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 ANIMAL SHELTERS. |
| 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. |
| HB 201 w/ HA 3 + SA 3 | Signed | Schwartzkopf | As of April 4, 2023, 74 people have been killed or injured by guns in schools this year in 13 separate school shootings. School shootings hit a record high in 2022 with 46 shootings, surpassing 2021’s record of 42 shootings. In 2022, 43,450 children experienced a school shooting. The purpose of this bill is to enable a police officer to act immediately when the officer sees or suspects that a person possesses a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone.
This Act establishes the crime of Possession of a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone as a class E felony. This bill makes it a crime for a person to possess a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone except a police officer or a constable or active-duty member of the armed forces who are acting in an official capacity within for the Safe School and Recreation Zone. The bill also exempts holders of a valid license to carry concealed weapons but only if the firearm is in a vehicle. The possession of a firearm under this bill does not apply if (1) the person is on private property which is not part of school grounds; (2) the firearm is in a locked container or locked firearms rack that is on or in a motor vehicle; or (3) when engaged in lawful hunting, firearms instruction, or firearm-related sports on public lands not belonging to a school. This bill provides that in addition to other penalties, a student who possesses a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone, shall be expelled for a period of not less than 90 days, but the local school board or charter school board of directors may, on a case-by-case basis, modify the terms of the expulsion.
This Act repeals the crime of Possession of a Weapon in a Safe School and Recreation Zone, but provides a Savings Clause which enables a prosecution for such crime if the offense occurred before the repeal is enacted. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO POSSESSION OF A FIREARM IN A SAFE SCHOOL AND RECREATION ZONE. |
| HB 202 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Romer | This Act limits those individuals who may possess a firearm at a polling place on an Election Day to the following: (1) law enforcement officers, (2) commissioned security guards acting in their official capacity, (3) constables acting in their official capacity, and (4) active-duty members of the United States Armed Forces and Delaware National Guard acting in their official capacity. This Act is applicable to any in-person election held under Title 15, any local school election held under Title 14, and any municipal election held in accordance with the municipality's charter, ordinance, or code, and includes locations designated for early voting. This Act also provides an exemption for individuals who reside or visit private property adjacent to a polling place, or who are traveling from private property to another location. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE POSSESSION OF A FIREARM AT A POLLING PLACE. |
| 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. |
| HS 2 for HB 160 | Signed | Longhurst | The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 established 988 as the universal phone number for "the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system operating through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline." This Act provides the framework to maximize the benefits of 988 and provide crucial support to Delawareans in need through the implementation of a practical, modern, and comprehensive, integrated crisis care system.
This Act is a second substitute for House Bill No. 160. Like House Bill No. 160 this Act does the following:
(1) Created the Behavioral Health Crisis Services Board (“Board”) to provide oversight and input on the development of an integrated behavioral health crisis care system in this State.
(2) Imposes a behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge on business and residential telephone services, wireless telephone services, and prepaid wireless telephone services. The surcharge will create a dedicated funding source for behavioral health crisis services. The Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention Services Fund is created to receive the surcharge funds. Specifically, this Act establishes a 60-cent per month per line fee on phone lines and a 60-cent one-time fee on prepaid services.
Like House Substitute No. 1 to House Bill No. 160, this Act does all of the following:
(1) Models the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge after the existing E-911 surcharge and prepaid wireless E911 surcharge created under Chapter 101 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code.
(2) Removes the creation of the Behavioral Health Crisis Communication Center and instead directs the Board to develop and recommend a plan for establishing, operating, and maintaining a behavioral health crisis communications center. The Board must submit the plan to the Governor and General Assembly within 12 months from the effective date of this Act.
(3) Makes changes to the definition of “mobile crisis team”.
(4) Makes changes to the composition of the Board to add the Executive Director of the Ability Network of Delaware and the Executive Director of each of Delaware’s Lifeline Centers.
This Act differs from House Substitute No. 1 to House Bill No. 160 as follows:
(1) Exempts State government from the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge.
(2) Removes a provision that would permit an increase in the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge collected for prepaid wireless telecommunication services if the General Assembly increased the behavioral health crisis intervention services surcharge collected for residential and business telephone service, wireless service, and nontraditional communication service.
(3) Removes the “crisis intervention service” definition.
(4) Removes "Providing crisis intervention services." from the list of eligible expenditures for the Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention Services Fund and replaces it with "Establishing, operating, or contracting for crisis teams for adults and children.".
This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 11 of Article VIII of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to impose or levy a tax or license fee | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO 988 BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CRISIS INTERVENTION SERVICES. |
| SB 189 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Poore | This Act adds xylazine and it isomers, esters, ethers, salts and salts of isomers, esters and ethers to Schedule III of the Delaware Uniform Controlled Substances Act and expands the authorization for the distribution of testing strips to determine the presence of controlled substances. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the emergence of xylazine across the United States appears to be following the same path as fentanyl, starting in the Northeast and then spreading to the South and working its way into drug markets westward, and the low cost of xylazine contributes to xylazine’s increased presence in the nation’s illegal drug supply. Xylazine is approved only for veterinary use, xylazine is a non-opioid with increasing presence as an adulterant, often in conjunction with opioids, in the illicit drug supply. When used alone and in conjunction with other drugs, xylazine is implicated as a cause or contributing cause of death in the United States. When used in conjunction with an opioid, such as heroin or fentanyl, xylazine may worsen respiratory depression in the event of a drug overdose, and because xylazine is not an opioid, naloxone is not known to be effective at reversing overdoses, and there is no known antidote or reversal agent for xylazine overdose in humans. This Act also exempts testing strips from the drug paraphernalia statute and expands the limitations on liability for lay individuals and organizations that provide a drug testing strip to an individual who uses drugs to reduce the likelihood of the individual experiencing harm.
This Act becomes effective upon the expiration of the Emergency Order issued by the Secretary of State placing Xylazine in Schedule III of the Uniform Controlled Substance Act or November 29, 2023, whichever is earlier. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE UNIFORM CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT AND DRUG TESTING STRIPS. |
