This bill reflects the reality that “grooming” children for the purpose of committing crimes of sexual violence against them is often preceded by conduct that perpetrators know will make the child particularly susceptible to abuse. The bill requires proof that a person has engaged in three or more specific instances of conduct proscribed by the statute. Each of these predicate acts would not otherwise be considered criminal conduct, so the bill requires proof of a pattern of conduct aimed at a specific outcome. By outlawing “grooming,” the State will be explicitly empowered to stop a predator who engages in certain conduct with the intent to entice, persuade, induce, or coerce a child into participating in a sexual act with the perpetrator. A conviction for “grooming” is a stand-alone offense and is a felony punishable by up to 3 years in jail.
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This Act expands Erin's Law to require training and education on issues related to inappropriate relationships between adults and children, such as grooming. Erin's Law requires the Child Protection Accountability Commission and the Division of Family Services of the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families to develop and maintain a curriculum to be used by Delaware's public schools to educate public school employees about personal body safety and child sexual abuse. Erin's Law is named in honor of Erin Merryn, a victim of child sexual abuse, who is working to enact legislation on this subject throughout the country. This act expands Erin's Law in several respects. The Act expands the range of grades that Erin's Law applies to from pre-kindergarten to grade 6 to pre-kindergarten to grade 12. In addition, the Act expands Erin's Law to require training for school employees on the prevention of inappropriate sexual misconduct, the establishment of appropriate adult and student interactions, and the warning signs of suspected adult sexual misconduct, with an emphasis on sexual grooming. It also expands the information available to parents and students to include information on the warning signs of adult sexual misconduct, including the derivative grooming of parents, methods for discussing adult sexual misconduct with students, resources for reporting suspected abuse, and counseling available to students and parents. Finally, the Act requires training and education for school administrators, school nurses, and school counselors on issues relating to inappropriate sexual relationships and grooming, such as strategies for the prevention of such misconduct, skills for responding to student disclosures of such misconduct, and measures to promote school recovery after an incident of such misconduct.
This Act requires each school district and charter school to adopt a policy regarding appropriate relationships between school employees, contractors, coaches, and volunteers and students. The policy must include a provision establishing appropriate and inappropriate interactions; a prohibition against adult sexual misconduct; a prohibition against any sexual relationship between a school employee, contractor, coach, or volunteer and a student; an emphasis on the mandatory reporting obligations under § 903 of Title 16; a procedure for notifying the Department of Education and law enforcement of suspected adult sexual misconduct; guidelines for the preferred and prohibited methods of electronic communication; notice that substantiated incidents of adult sexual misconduct will be reported in future reference checks; and a provision requiring the development of hiring practices to screen for adult sexual misconduct. This Act will be implemented for the 2023-2024 school year.
This Act establishes the Delaware Expanding Access for Retirement and Necessary Saving (“EARNS”) program to serve as a vehicle through which eligible employees may, on a voluntary basis, provide for additional retirement security through a State-facilitated retirement savings program in a convenient, cost effective, and portable manner. The EARNS program will be designed to serve small businesses who are unable to offer retirement plans to employees due to the cost and administrative burden. Because there are documented wealth gaps in Delaware, disproportionately impacting women and people of color, a state-facilitated savings plan aims to alleviate barriers small employers face in offering options, close the wealth gap among low to modest wage earners and keep Delaware competitive with neighboring states by attracting talented workers to Delaware. A state-sponsored savings plan, funded by employees, facilitated by employers, and overseen by the State, will offer one solution to the quickly emerging crises stemming from generations of workers without adequate savings. The Act creates the Delaware EARNS Program Board to oversee initial design and implementation of the program. The board will be disbanded no later than December 31, 2025, at which point all duties and functions of the board will be transferred to and assumed by the Plans Management Board. The effective date of the Act is contingent upon an appropriation by the General Assembly necessary to implement the Program. This Act also makes technical changes to the existing law to make it conform to the standards of the Legislative Drafting Manual.
The Consumer Protection Fund covers a substantial portion of the costs and expenses to run the Department of Justice’s Fraud and Consumer Protection Division, which serves all Delawareans, handles hundreds of consumer complaints every year, and is continually taking on more cases on behalf of Delawareans who have been victims of fraud and deceptive business practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of dramatically increased scams against Delaware's most vulnerable populations, including our seniors, the Fraud and Consumer Protection Division has been on the front lines. The Division brings money into the Consumer Protection Fund by investigating and enforcing Delaware’s consumer protection and financial fraud laws, and the amounts obtained, often through settlements, can be large but are unpredictable. Despite a significant expansion of the work and jurisdiction of the Fraud and Consumer Protection Division, the Consumer Protection Fund retention cap has not been increased since 2014. This Act increases the maximum amount of money the Department of Justice can keep in the Consumer Protection Fund at the end of each fiscal year from $3 million to $10 million. Increasing the retention cap from $3 million to $10 million will promote greater stability in funding the Division’s operations even during periods of volatility in the amount of money the Division brings in through its investigation and enforcement work, and will reduce the risk that the Division needs to seek funding for its critical operations out of General Fund appropriations. Increasing the retention cap will not affect ASF spending authorization for the Consumer Protection Fund, which will remain subject to the existing appropriations process.
This Act, modeled on similar laws in Virginia and Maryland, requires a health-care provider to provide notice to a patient at the time blood is drawn to perform a laboratory test for Lyme disease that explains the limitations of the test and instructs the patient to see their health-care provider if the patient continues to experience unexplained symptoms. This Act was previously passed by the 150th General Assembly in Senate Bill 15, and is the same except for the removal of the sunset provision.
By this Act, Delaware would join the Interstate Occupational Therapy Licensure Compact (OT Compact). The OT Compact is an interstate compact, or a formal agreement among states, to facilitate the interstate practice of occupational therapy. Under the OT Compact, Occupational Therapists (OTs) and Occupational Therapy Assistants (OTAs) who are licensed and in good standing in a Compact member state may practice in other Compact member states via a “compact privilege,” which is equivalent to a license. This will remove the need for practitioners to get an individual license in each state where they want to practice. The OT Compact is the same in form and function as other occupational licensure compacts like the Nurse Multistate Licensure Compact (adopted by Delaware, 24 Del. C. Ch. 19A), the Physical Therapy Compact (adopted by Delaware, 24 Del. C. Ch. 26C) and the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (adopted by Delaware, 24 Del.C. Ch. 17A). The OT Compact authorizes in person practice and telepractice based on a valid, unrestricted home state license in other Compact member states for both Occupational Therapists (OTs) and Occupational Therapy Assistants (OTAs) The American Occupational Therapy Association is leading the initiative in collaboration with the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy. The National Center for Interstate Compacts at the Council of State Governments facilitated the development of the OT Compact and is providing technical assistance. The OT Compact has been adopted by ten states: Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The OT Compact is pending before the legislatures of thirteen other states. The OT Compact establishes a licensure data system allowing for instantaneous verification of licensure information. The Compact also establishes an interstate commission, composed of member state officials, to carry out the Compact’s purposes.
This bill increases the amount of funds deposited into the Investor Protection Fund from money collected by the Investor Protection Unit from $100,000 to $550,000. In addition, it increases the retention cap of the Investor Protection Fund from $300,000 to $750,000. Lastly, it expands the permissible uses of the Investor Protection Fund to include expenses of the Fraud and Consumer Protection Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) related to consumer protection and financial fraud. The Investor Protection Fund receives revenues from fees collected by the Unit, as well as any settlement recoveries of the Unit. It is largely used to pay the non-personnel expenses of DOJ’s Investor Protection Unit, which is a part of DOJ’s Fraud and Consumer Protection Division.
This Act renames the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council as the Delaware Anti-Trafficking Action Council (Council) for the purpose of providing a clearer description of the work that the Council performs. This Act also transfers the Council from under the authority of the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to the Criminal Justice Council. DHSS's clerical staffing duty is removed. This Act requires the Council to appoint an Executive Director, who will serve at the Council's pleasure. The Executive Director shall support the Council in carrying out its statutory duties. Subject to the approval of a quorum of the Council and within the limits of any appropriation made by the General Assembly or available funding from another funding source, the Executive Director shall also employ staff and contract for services as necessary to assist the Council with performing its duties. By providing the Council with staff, the Council will be better able to comply with its statutory mandates under Delaware's Human Trafficking law. It will also be able to pursue grant funding opportunities that it previously did not have the infrastructure to support. Additionally, this Act broadens several existing statutory duties of the Council to ensure the Council has the flexibility necessary to perform its work and allows it to pursue work that may broaden opportunity to obtain grant funding. This Act also clarifies that one member of the Council must be an individual with prior experience in working with victims of human trafficking in a legal or advocacy capacity and that this individual may reside in any county. This Act also clarifies how this member must be appointed. This Act adds additional reporting requirements, clarifies that the report is intended to be an annual report, and adds that the report must also be submitted to the Executive Director of the Criminal Justice Council. This Act removes language related to the initial startup of the Council because this language is no longer relevant. This Act also repeals § 787(k)(2)j. of this Title because the paragraph contains language that is no longer relevant. Procedural requirements for Council business are located in § 787(k)(4), so the procedural requirements in § 787(k)(2)j. were moved to § 787(k)(4)b. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including corresponding corrections to internal references in § 787(l) and § 787(m) since paragraphs within § 787(k) have been renumbered. The Council wishes to name this Act for and honor the late Ms. February O’Donnell and the late Ms. Amy Day. Ms. O’Donnell, a human trafficking survivor, and Ms. Day, a victims’ services volunteer who started the nonprofit, Meet Me At The Well, were remarkable women who helped lead the way in Delaware’s fight against human trafficking.
This Act prohibits the manufacture, sale, or distribution of children's products, upholstered furniture used in residences, and mattresses that contain harmful flame retardant chemicals. These flame retardants have been found to cause cancer, particularly to firefighters who are extinguishing fires that involve products that contain these chemicals. This Act does not apply to any of the following: 1. The sale of used products. 2. Furniture purchased for public use in public facilities 3. Thread or fiber used for stitching mattress components. 4. Children’s products that are not primarily intended for use in the home. 5. Products being transferred to a vehicle at a warehouse or distribution center for delivery in another state. 6. Electronic components. This Act takes effect on July 1, 2021.