| HCR 12 | Passed House | D. Short | This Resolution pays tribute to the men and women of the Delaware National Guard for their service and sacrifices in support of defending our state and nation, and recognizes the outstanding advocacy provided by the National Guard Association of Delaware | HONORING THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NATIONAL GUARD ASSOCIATION OF DELAWARE FOR THEIR SERVICE IN ADVOCATING, ORGANIZING, TRAINING, AND EQUIPPING THE NATIONAL GUARD IN SUPPORT OF THE DEFENSE OF OUR STATE AND NATION. |
| SCR 22 | Passed | Poore | This Senate Concurrent Resolution recognizes March 2025 as "Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month" in the State of Delaware and highlights the importance of education, prevention, and early detection to reduce the impact of colorectal cancer. | RECOGNIZING MARCH 2025 AS "COLORECTAL CANCER AWARENESS MONTH" IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE. |
| HB 76 | Committee | Gorman | This Act eliminates authorization for a warrantless arrest by a private person in the case of an individual accused in the courts of another state of a felony. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 RELATING TO ARREST BY A PRIVATE PERSON. |
| SCR 28 | Passed | Poore | This Concurrent Resolution recognizes March 2025 as "Kidney Month" in Delaware. | RECOGNIZING THE MONTH OF MARCH 2025 AS “KIDNEY MONTH” IN DELAWARE. |
| HA 1 to HB 54 | PWB | Morrison | This Amendment names this Act "DJ's Act" after the advocate and their children who inspired it. | |
| HB 77 | Committee | Morrison | This Act requires that members of school boards, including charter school boards, receive training on all of the following:
1. Requirements for school board meetings under this title and the Freedom of Information Act, Chapter 100 of Title 29.
2. Best practices regarding the conduct of meetings, including the use of rules of order.
3. The State Employees’, Officers’ and Officials’ Code of Conduct, subchapter I. of Chapter 58 of Title 29.
Most school boards already provide training that satisfies the requirements under this Act and the training and notices required under this Act may be combined with the training and notices already required under § 1803 of Title 14 for required financial responsibility training. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO TRAINING FOR SCHOOL BOARDS. |
| HB 78 | Committee | Morrison | This Act requires that under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Chapter 100 of Title 29, public bodies must make digital recordings of meetings, post these recordings on their website within 7 business days after the meeting concludes, and keep the recording on the website for at least 1 year. If the meeting has an executive session, the executive session portion of the recording may be withheld from the digital recording posted on the website. The digital recording may be audio only and a technological failure that prevents or limits the digital recording of a meeting does not invalidate the meeting or an action taken at the meeting.
This Act also makes corresponding changes to existing laws that require school district boards, boards of charter schools, the State Board of Education, and the full Board of Trustees of public institutions of higher learning to make and post digital recordings of board meetings.
In addition, because school district boards, boards of charter schools, and the State Board of Education are subject to the meeting requirements under FOIA and specific meeting requirements scattered throughout Title 14, this Act clarifies that when there is a difference between requirements under Title 14 and requirements under FOIA, the requirements under Title 14 apply.
Specifically:
Section 1 adds the digital recording requirements and exceptions for meetings of public bodies to FOIA as § 10004(f)(5) of Title 29.
Section 2 requires that the digital recording of a meeting of the full Board of Trustees of public institutions of higher learning be posted on a public website within 7 days business days of the meeting, instead of “within a reasonable time”.
Section 3 revises the digital recording requirement for State Board of Education meetings to require that recordings remain on the website for at least a year and adds a reference to § 10004(f)(5) of Title 29 so that recordings of executive sessions are now required but that portion may be withheld from the recording posted on the website. Section 3 also removes the exception that does not require digital recordings of committee meetings because under FOIA, committee meetings are subject to the same open meeting requirements as a meeting of the full State Board of Education.
Section 4 adds references to § 10004(f)(5) of Title 29 to the current recording requirements for meetings of boards of education of public school districts, vocational-technical high school districts, and boards of directors of charter schools.
Section 5 and Section 8 clarify that if there is a conflict between a requirement under FOIA and a requirement under Title 14, the requirements under Title 14 apply to a board of a charter school (Section 5) or a board of a school district (Section 8).
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including the following:
Section 5 and Section 6 consolidate the definitions in Chapter 5 of Title 14 by transferring them to § 503(a) of Title 14.
Section 7 repeals unnecessarily repetitive language from the definitions in § 1041 of Title 14.
This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a charter issued to a municipal corporation. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 AND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO RECORDINGS OF MEETINGS OF PUBLIC BODIES. |
| HB 79 | Committee | Morrison | This Act requires additional reporting and disclosure related to the use of mechanical restraint and seclusion in public schools.
While public school personnel cannot use mechanical restraint or seclusion on students in absence of a waiver, law-enforcement officers can. This Act requires the Department of Education to collect data from public schools about the use of mechanical restraint and seclusion, in addition to the physical restraint data that is already collected. The Department of Education shall include the mechanical restraint and seclusion data in its annual report. This Act adds a specific date by which the annual report is due. Additionally, the annual report must be submitted to certain entities, including the Delaware School Boards Association and the boards of education of school districts and the boards of directors of charter schools.
This Act also adds mechanical restraint and seclusion to the parental notice requirement and special procedures and safeguard requirements that already exist for use of physical restraint.
Though § 4112F defines “chemical restraint”, chemical restraint cannot be performed by anyone in a public school. Therefore, this Act does not add chemical restraint to data collection, reporting, parental notification, or safeguard requirements.
Furthermore, this Act adds a definition of school resource officer (SRO) to clarify that SROs are law-enforcement officers. This Act requires the Department of Education to amend its regulations in accordance with the definitions in this Act.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including correctly formatting lists and revising § 4112F(d) of Title 14, the subsection addressing particular training requirements for SROs, to account for the creation of a definition of SRO. One technical correction in § 4112F(d) is changing a “shall not” to a “may not” as it applies to the prohibition against the use of SROs who have not complied with mandated training requirements. According to Rule 12 in the Legislative Drafting Manual, “shall not” should be avoided in legislative drafting. Furthermore, both “may not” and “must not” are proper ways to express a prohibition in the Delaware Code. They convey the same level of mandatory prohibition except that “may not” qualifies a verb in active voice while “must not” qualifies an inactive verb or an active verb in passive voice. This technical correction still prohibits school districts and charter schools from using an SRO who has not satisfied the training requirements in § 4112F(d).
This Act takes effect on August 1, 2025. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LIMITATIONS ON THE USE OF SECLUSION AND RESTRAINT. |
| HB 80 | Committee | Michael Smith | The Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is the percentage of electricity that utilities must source from renewables. This is presently set at 25% and will increase annually, culminating at 40% in 2035.
Delaware does not currently have enough renewable energy to meet the present mandate, let alone future RPS requirements. Renewable energy is also in short supply on the regional power grid. If it is available, consumers are paying additional distribution charges to transmit it to Delaware. If renewable energy is not obtainable, Delaware utilities are paying penalties to the state for failing to achieve the RPS mandate. In each of the last two years, Delmarva Power has spent about $13 million annually in such state mandated compliance fees. All these cost multipliers are being passed along to consumers, making power more expensive for Delaware ratepayers.
This bill recognizes the current flawed public energy policy that has resulted in renewable energy demand significantly outpacing supply. This legislation seeks to provide relief to Delawareans by rolling back the Renewable Portfolio Standard to 10% and maintaining the RPS requirement for the next 10 years, providing sufficient time for renewable generation capacity to meet demand. After the 10-year period expires, the RPS percentage will resume scheduled annual increases.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 26 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO RENEWABLE ENERGY PORTFOLIO STANDARDS. |
| HS 1 for HB 46 | Committee | Shupe | Like House Bill 46, this Act ensures that no physician or medically authorized person shall perform an abortion upon a child under the age of 16 without having obtained parental consent, except in cases of medical emergency or if the Family Court adjudicates that the minor is mature and well-informed enough to make the decision independently, or obtaining parental consent is not in the best interest of the minor, such as in cases of abuse, neglect, or coercion.
This Act differs from House Bill 46 by removing additional references to the former notice requirement in Chapter 17, Subchapter VIII, of Title 24, and by clarifying that a legal guardian may grant the consent required by this Act. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PARENTAL CONSENT FOR MINORS SEEKING AN ABORTION. |
| HB 81 | Committee | Gray | This bill removes outdated references to permits. It further empowers the Council to designate those jurisdictions outside of the United States that will be recognized for certain types of applications based upon comity. The bill alters the section regarding discipline for examination violations because the examination is now administered in a computerized format. The bill modifies the process for the reporting of case decision recommendations to the Council by its subordinate committees and clarifies that the Council may seek injunctive relief to enforce its cease-and-desist orders. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS. |
| SCR 29 | Passed | Townsend | This Resolution recognizes March 18, 2025, as "National Public Defense Day" in Delaware. | RECOGNIZING MARCH 18, 2025, AS "NATIONAL PUBLIC DEFENSE DAY". |
| HB 82 | Committee | Wilson-Anton | This Act requires that a school board candidate and member be an “inhabitant” of the district, or designated portion of a district, that member represents. “Inhabitant” is defined for this purpose as “a person who both claims legal residence and physically resides in a designated area or school district.” Further, the bill provides that if a school board member is not physically present in their district for more than 75% of the days in any yearlong period of that member’s term, the member ceases to qualify as an inhabitant. Absence required by military service is not counted as absence for purposes of this statute. This Act provides that a resident of a school district may bring an action in Superior Court asking the Court to declare a vacancy if the resident has cause to believe a member is no longer an inhabitant of that member’s district.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform to the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS. |
| HB 83 | Committee | Wilson-Anton | This Act requires school boards to allow members to attend school board meetings by a remote method under certain limited circumstances relating to health or military deployments. A school board member attending by electronic means under this legislation would count towards quorum and be able to vote as though physically present. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS. |
| HB 84 | Committee | Morrison | This bill prohibits employers from requiring employees to participate in mandatory meetings or communications that are religious or political in nature. This bill also prohibits employers from punishing employees for the refusing to participate in the same. Meetings or communications necessary for their job duties or that are voluntary are excepted. Violators of the bill are subject to civil penalties between $1,000 - $5,000 per violation. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMPLOYER-SPONSORED MEETINGS OR COMMUNICATIONS. |
| HB 85 | Committee | K. Williams | Under current law, both school board members who are elected and those who are appointed to fill vacancies until the next election are required to complete a background check. However, the statute is currently unclear as to how a background check gets done and who is responsible for reviewing the background check for an appointment. This Act makes clear that a person may not be appointed unless a background check has been completed and the Commissioner of Elections has determined the person is qualified for the seat, in the same manner the Commissioner completes that duty for candidates for school board elections. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 AND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS. |
| HB 86 | Committee | Shupe | This Act establishes a uniform threshold and procedure for a recount after a primary or general election for a statewide office, State Senator, State Representative, county office, the City of Wilmington, or school district elections. Under this Act, a recount will be conducted if the difference in the number of votes is 1% or less.
This Act makes the following changes to current law:
• Eliminates the need for a candidate to request a recount after a general election for statewide office, State Senator, State Representative, county office, or office in the City of Wilmington.
• Eliminates the need for 25 voters to petition for a recount in school district elections.
• Establishes a clear threshold for a recount equal to a difference of 1% or less of the votes cast.
Changing the recount threshold to 1% or less will likely be a substantive change to existing law only for statewide elections and county-wide offices in New Castle County. Current law allows a recount after a primary or general election for a statewide office, State Senator, State Representative, county office, or office in the City of Wilmington if the number of votes separating 2 candidates is less than 1,000 votes or ½ of 1% of all of the votes cast for the 2 candidates, whichever is less.
• Based on the number of votes cast in the most recent elections, ½ of 1% and 1% of the votes cast will almost always be under 1,000 for State Senator, State Representative, county office, or office in the City of Wilmington.
• For statewide offices or county-wide offices in New Castle County, ½ of 1% will almost always be more than 1,000 votes so changing the threshold to 1% or less will allow for recounts after more elections for these offices.
Similarly, under existing law, a recount may be requested in a school district election if the difference in the election of a school board member or in the outcome of an election regarding taxes, standard school construction, or bonds is less than 10 votes or ½ of 1% of the total vote, whichever is larger. Both 1% and ½ of 1% of the votes cast will almost always be more than 10 votes.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including revisions to align § 1083 of Title 14 with the current responsibilities and practices of the Department of Elections.
This Act does not need a super-majority because this Act does not change the City of Wilmington’s authority under its charter because in 1955, the General Assembly enacted 50 Del. Laws. c. 390, § 9, which clearly provides that Chapters 31 and 57 of Title 15 are applicable to the holding of elections in the City of Wilmington. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 AND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO RECOUNTS OF BALLOTS IN ELECTIONS. |
| HA 1 to SS 1 for SB 21 | PWB | Phillips | This Amendment mirrors the proposed changes in SS 1 for Senate Bill 21, but provides that the corporation must "opt-in" to adopt them. It adds a new section one, which describes the method by which the corporation may opt in to the changes from the default, existing law. | |
