The Delaware National Guard provides financial assistance to eligible service members for certain postsecondary education tuition and fees. Under the current education benefits program, the Delaware National Guard reimburses service members for tuition and fees the service members have already paid. But young service members often cannot take advantage of this program because they cannot afford to pay upfront for tuition and fees. This also hurts Delaware National Guard recruiting efforts because potential service members may choose to join National Guard programs in other states that do not require service members to pay upfront for tuition and fees. Keeping the Delaware National Guard fully staffed is essential to responding to state emergencies. Lack of staff also leads the Department of Defense to shift positions from the Delaware National Guard to other states that can recruit at higher levels than Delaware. This results in reduced mission capability in Delaware and less federal funding coming to Delaware. This Act amends the existing code relating to Delaware National Guard education benefits by switching from a system that reimburses service members to a system that pays certain tuition and fees, on behalf of a service member, directly to a Delaware postsecondary institution. This change allows more service members to use education benefits, which will improve Delaware National Guard recruiting and retention, and enhance the professional education qualifications of its members. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual and clarifies that the tuition assistance provided for Delaware private postsecondary institutions is based on the average tuition for state-supported postsecondary institutions. This Act is effective immediately and is implemented on July 1, 2026, to allow updates to rules, regulations, and forms for the Delaware National Guard tuition assistance program.
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.
This Act amends the Fiscal Year 2025 Bond and Capital Improvements Act to (1) authorize local bond shares to adjust for William Penn High School in the Colonial School District. Further, this Act amends Fiscal Year 2025 Bond and Capital Improvements Act to (2) authorize the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, with concurrence of the Controller General and the Co-Chairs of the Joint Committee on Capital, to transfer any necessary spending authority from the Cultural Access Fund; (3) revise allocations to the City of Dover and Downtown Dover Partnership; (4) revise the allocation for the University of Delaware for Deferred Maintenance from Laboratories to Campus Improvements; (5) revise the State and Local share allocations for the Smyrna Roof Replacement project and authorizes School Construction Market Pressure to be transferrable between Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 to achieve allocations; (6) adjust School Safety and Security funding from the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Delaware State Police, Special Investigation to reflect State Bureau of Identification; (7) removes the requirement of school districts and charter schools to obligate prior fiscal year MCI funds prior to utilizing Enhanced MCI; (8) authorize the transfer of any remaining funds from Legislative Hall major and minor capital improvement appropriations to be used for the Legislative Hall Garage/Expansion project; (9) authorize the transfer of any remaining funds from the Domestic Violence Coordinating Feasibility Study to the Criminal Justice Council for Family Justice Center startup costs; (10) authorizes the transfer of funds allocated for the Scannell Readiness Center and up to $500,000 of available Minor Capital Improvements to cover the project for the Bethany Beach Training Barracks; (11) authorizes funds from Capital School District’s Certificate of Necessity (CN 2113A) to be used to support new facilities for the Kent County Community School and Kent County Secondary ILC; (12) authorize the Department of Transportation to use Community Transportation Funds for one-time reimbursements for various projects; (13) reprograms funding from the Community Redevelopment/Reinvestment Fund from Downtown Milford, Inc. to the Delaware State Fair, the Milford District Fee Public Library Commission, and Kent Sussex Industries; (14) authorize the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to perform an adaptive reuse study for the Delaware State Police Troop 7; and (15) remove the deadline date requiring Sussex County Council to adopt § 6961, Title 9 of the Delaware Code.
This bill removes certain limitations placed on Sussex County Vocational Technical High School, thereby allowing the school district the same rights and privileges as Polytech (Kent County) and New Castle Vo-Tech.
This Act creates a background special license plate for the William Penn High School to support scholarships and community events sponsored by the high school. A background special license plate supports a cause and is available for purchase by the public at large, including members of the organization. The numbers, letters, or both, assigned will be the same as the license plate assigned to the owner’s vehicle at the time of the application for the plate. 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 for the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when a new tax or license fee is imposed.
This Act creates a uniform framework under which a county or municipality may enact an ordinance that exempts Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties from property taxes and instead, require that a LIHTC property make an annual payment in lieu of taxes equal to 5% of the LIHTC’s annual net income as reported to the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA). Under this Act, a LIHTC property that is exempt from property taxes is also exempt from taxation by school districts. Allowing LIHTC properties to make a payment in lieu of taxes, acknowledges the public benefit of the affordable housing provided by LIHTC properties. The Internal Revenue Service LIHTC was created in 1986 by the federal government to encourage a private/public investment to preserve and construct new affordable rental housing. Alone and in combination with tax exempt private activity bonds, the LIHTC has been the most productive source of affordable housing financing in the nation’s history. DSHA receives an annual tax credit amount and awards credits annually through a competitive process. The awards are based on criteria outlined in DSHA’s Qualified Allocation Plan. The equity raised through the tax credit investment makes it possible for developers to attract the financing needed to create or restore low-income rental housing. A LIHTC project must comply with a number of requirements including the timeframe from the award to when the building is placed in service, tenant income restrictions, maximum rent levels, and percentage of low-income occupancy. All buildings financed with the LIHTC are subject to a land use covenant to enforce program compliance for the entirety of the affordability period.
This Substitute to HB 91 differs from HB 91 in that it further expands free breakfasts in schools participating in the federal School Breakfast Program by making them available to all students, regardless of household income, but does not expand free lunch income eligibility. The Department of Education shall reimburse a public school providing free breakfasts. The reimbursement must be equal to the federal free reimbursement rate multiplied by the total number of breakfasts that the participating public school serves during the applicable budget year minus the total amount of reimbursement for breakfasts served during the applicable budget year that the participating public school receives under the School Breakfast Program. This Act does not apply to schools participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, Provision 1, Provision 2, or Provision 3 special assistance certification and reimbursement alternatives. This Act takes effect immediately and is to be implemented beginning July 1, 2026.
This Act enacts the Interstate Compact for School Psychologists (“Compact”), which is designed to facilitate the interstate practice of school psychology in educational settings. School-based mental health services are in high demand in Delaware, but workforce shortages can make it difficult to meet that demand. By creating an additional licensing pathway for school psychologists to obtain equivalent licenses to practice school psychology in any state that is a member of the Compact, the Act aims to increase the availability of school psychological services for students in this State. The Interstate Compact for School Psychologists must be enacted in 7 states to become effective. The Compact has been enacted in 2 states and legislation is pending in several others.
This Act ensures that a public school employee may not work directly with students unsupervised without a valid permit or license issued by the DOE’s Professional Standards Boards or an approved license issued under Title 24. To that end, this Act creates a new permit requirement for any paraprofessional or student support and classroom position, including specialist interns, year-long residents, full time substitute teachers, substitute teachers seeking certification, student teachers, and classroom aides. The following employees are exempt from the permitting and licensing requirements: non-instructional administrators; nutrition staff; custodial staff; transportation staff; clerical staff; charter school heads exempt under § 507(c) of Title 14; and substitute teachers seriving for less than 12 consecutive weeks in a school. The same laws, procedures, penalties, and safeguards that apply to the issuance, suspension, and revocation of a license under Chapter 12 of Title 14, will apply to a permit. The DOE may require reimbursement of any funds disbursed to district or charter schools for an employee without a license or permit, who holds a position requiring a license or permit. The DOE may also require reimbursement for an employee that is working under an expired license or permit. Finally, this Act increases the maximum supplement amount an employee may earn for accepting additional responsibility assignments that impact student achievement. The supplement may be no more than $5,000, rather than $1,500. It also directs the Department to update the Department of Education PHRST code manual so that the position codes align to titles of positions that are currently used by educators, and outdated codes are deleted. The new system codes must be in effect by the start of the 2026-2027 school year. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Senate Joint Resolution establishes the Juvenile Justice Educational Transitions Task Force to propose a plan to ensure more successful transitions of youth from Delaware’s secured post-adjudicatory residential placement back into middle school or high school, including consideration of a new educational facility specifically targeted at transition of those youth.
