This bill establishes a 20 year retirement for correction officers and specified peace officers. The bill amends the multiplier for calculation of state employee pension benefits for correction officers and specified peace officers from either 1.85%, 2.0% or 2.45% to a uniform 2.5% for the first 20 years, plus 3.5% for years beyond 20 years. The increased multipliers reflect increased costs, reduced benefits and the need to recruit and retain qualified and competent correction officers and specified peace officers with a modernized pension benefit. In addition, this bill amends the employee contribution for all correction officers and specified peace officers to a uniform 7%. Specified peace officers means (1) Probation and parole officers employed by the Department of Correction; (2) Capitol Police officers; (3) Department of Natural Resources police officers; (4) University of Delaware Police; (5) State Fire Marshal officers; (6) Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement agents; (7) Justice of the Peace Court constables; and (8) Probation and parole officers in the Serious Juvenile Offender Unit and senior probation officers employed by the Division of Services for Children, Youth, and their Families.
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Individuals who are released from prison face many hurdles as they re-enter the community, including difficulty obtaining identification documents. Lacking identification imposes additional hurdles as these individuals attempt to find housing and employment. This Act requires the Department of Correction to provide individuals who are being released from the custody of the Department of Correction ("DOC"), after 6 months of incarceration following conviction, with a Delaware Personal Credential Card ("Personal Credential"). An individual may present the Personal Credential to receive one free certified copy of the individual's birth certificate and one identification card or driver's license, if otherwise eligible to receive those documents. This Act builds on the pilot that has been in place since 2012, when the DOC partnered with the Division of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Health and Social Services to obtain identification for individuals who volunteer to participate in the I-ADAPT re-entry program. Currently, individuals in I-ADAPT receive a Prisoner Re-Entry card, valid for 1 year, that can be used to obtain to obtain a free copy of their birth certificate, if they were born in Delaware, and a free identification card, if otherwise eligible to receive one.
Currently there are 17 "check-boxes" on the Delaware personal income tax return where taxpayers may designate a portion of their refund or send additional money with their payment due to be credited as a charitable donation to various organizations. The number of organizations has continued to grow over the years without any charities being removed. As a result, a relatively stable total amount of donations is being spread across a larger number of causes, reducing the utility for any single charity and increasing the administrative burden on the Division of Revenue. This bill eliminates the two lowest grossing charitable funds - for the US Olympic Committee and for the Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Trust Fund, and replaces them with Funds for the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children and the United Way of Delaware. It also adds a provision to the code capping the number of permissible charity check-offs on the return at 21.
This Act makes the Delaware equal accommodation law internally consistent, correctly organized, and aligned with the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). This Act corrects the potential for confusion in Chapter 45 of Title 6 in the following ways: 1. The current law states that the purpose of Chapter 45 is to prohibit discrimination based upon physical disability but Chapter 45 actually prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental disabilities. This Act corrects the purpose language in § 4501 of Title 6 by changing the term "physical disability" to "disability" so that it accurately states the scope of the protection provided by of Chapter 45. 2. The current law uses the term "support animal" while the ADA and other states use the term "service animal." This Act replaces the term "support animal" with "service animal" to use the same term as the ADA. 3. The current law defines "support animal" as assisting only individuals with physical disabilities and does not address service animals that assist individuals with nonphysical disabilities, even though Chapter 45 prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental impairments. This Act uses the ADA definition of service animal, which requires that the dog be trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. 4. The current law places the prohibition against discriminating against an individual with a support animal in the definition section rather than in the prohibited practices section. This Act moves the requirement that a service animal be permitted to accompany an individual with a disability in public places from the definition of disability to the statute that lists unlawful practices. With these corrections, this Act restructures and corrects the language in Chapter 45 of Title 6 so that it is consistent with the ADA and clear that an individual with any disability, including an individual with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or other psychiatric, intellectual, or mental disability, may be accompanied by a service animal in a public place. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Since 1973, § 9605(b) of Title 9 of the Delaware Code (“§ 9605”) has prohibited the recordation of instruments that restrict the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to or by any person because of the person’s race, color, creed, sex, national origin, or ancestry. This Act provides a mechanism for owners of real property subject to an instrument that contains a provision that restricts property rights based on the list of characteristics included in § 9605, including the governing documents of a common interest community, to redact and strike the unlawful restrictive covenant language from instruments recorded with a county recorder of deeds before the original enactment of § 9605 or in violation of § 9605. This Act also amends the list of characteristics included in § 9605 that may not be used to discriminate in the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to make it consistent with Delaware’s fair housing laws. However, this Act makes clear that provisions that are permitted by the exceptions to the Delaware Fair Housing Act are not prohibited from being recorded by a recorder of deeds. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
The state is currently funding service providers at 75% of the market rate established in a 2014 study that was done by DHSS. This bill would mandate an increase in the rates paid to service providers according to the recommendations of the market study, so that by fiscal year 2021 the state would fund service providers at 100% of the benchmarked rate. These rate increases are necessary to increase the hourly wages of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), to improve recruitment and retention of these positions, to decrease staff turnover, and to decrease position vacancies. Along with the corresponding costs for program oversight, direct supervision of DSPs, and training, stabilizing the DSP workforce with increased pay is essential to keep people with I/DD safe and integrated to the maximum extent possible in their local communities. The bill also requires that the adequacy of the rate system be evaluated against performance measures that are commonly used to assess program quality.
This Act amends Titles 14, 16, 17, 26, and 29 of the Delaware Code to prohibit the use of lead paints on outdoor structures such as bridges, water towers, playground equipment, highways, parking lots, and utility towers and poles, in order to protect public health from the dangers of such paints. More specifically, Section 1 of this Act substantively amends Title 16 to add a new Chapter 30M setting forth the general prohibition of use of lead paints on outdoor structures after specified effective dates. Section 2 of this Act amends Titles 17, 26, and 29 to reference back to the new Title 16 Chapter 30M prohibitions. Section 3 requires the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to develop regulations governing the removal of lead paint from outdoor structures consistent with this Act.
As poll from 2017 revealed that 31% of people in the United States have been sexually harassed in the workplace. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a comprehensive study of workplace harassment in the United States which concluded that between 25% and 85% of women reported having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. However, the Commission estimated that 75% of all workplace harassment incidents go unreported. The purpose of this bill is to combat sexual harassment in the workplace and to ensure the safety and dignity of all employees in Delaware. This bill defines sexual harassment and makes employers responsible for the sexual harassment of an employee by a supervisor or by another employee when the employer knew or should have known about it and failed to take appropriate corrective action. Moreover, this bill prevents an employer from retaliating against an employee for filing a discrimination charge. This bill includes a requirement that the Department of Labor create an information sheet pertaining to sexual harassment that employers must distribute to employees. Employers having more than 50 or more employees in Delaware will be required to provide sexual harassment training to all employees and supervisory employees which must be conducted every 2 years. This bill also empowers the Department of Labor to investigate violations of this Act and gives the Department jurisdiction over all sexual harassment cases which includes an administrative process. This bill requires the Department of Labor to post the requirements in this bill on its website and perform outreach necessary to educate employers of the requirements. This bill takes effect on January 1, 2019.
This Act provides mandatory expungement eligibility to individuals who were convicted of the possession, use or consumption of marijuana prior to Delaware’s decriminalization of these offenses. To be eligible for the mandatory expungement, the marijuana conviction must be the applicant’s only criminal conviction.
This Act implements the recommendations of the March 2105 Autism Educational Task Force report regarding § 1332 of Title 14, the Program for Children with Autism and its Special Staff. Enacted nearly three decades ago, this law established a network of educational programs initially within a separate school structure known as The Delaware Autism Program (DAP). Today, this network continues as a combination of both separate school programs and within local school district support services. However, the current model does not reflect current practices in special education, especially regarding inclusive education, and parents’ desire to have their children educated in their local communities. In addition, the increase in students with an educational classification of autism spectrum disorder (“ASD”) has made it difficult for the Statewide Director to provide the level of services and support that once was offered. This Act establishes the qualifications and duties of the Statewide Director and enhances the current mandatory committee structure to include a Parent Advisory Committee, in addition to the Peer Review Committee and Statewide Monitoring Review Board, to increase family input, monitoring, and protections. This Act creates a 3 year pilot program that revises the concept of DAP toward a system in which the statewide Director will work in collaboration with a team of experts to provide technical assistance and training to districts and educational entities. It allows for and provides adequate resources for all students with ASD in Delaware by eliminating the distinction between DAP-approved programs and other in-district options and by providing in-state experts at a lower cost than out-of-state residential treatment and consultants. The pilot program created under this Act makes changes that recognize and support the need for specialized technical assistance and training staff to be available to build capacity for teachers in all districts and other programs educating students with ASD. These changes expand available supports so that excellent, evidence-based training and technical assistance can be made available to all Delaware schools and the students who attend them. The pilot program created under this Act establishes a technical assistance team of educational autism specialists numbering a ratio of 1 for every 100 students (currently estimated at 15 positions). The fiscal mechanism to support the pilot program will be accomplished through mandated district participation that is consistent with the current needs-based funding system in Delaware and by redirecting state spending towards lower cost, community-based supports from out-of-state residential placements. The number of training specialists will be phased in over several years or until the pilot program ends. Finally, this Act is known as "The Alex Eldreth Autism Education Law" in memory Alex Eldreth, who passed away unexpectedly on November 24, 2017, and his dedication to this work.