HB 79: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LIMITATIONS ON THE USE OF SECLUSION AND RESTRAINT.

Official summary

Abstract published by the legislature (via Open States). Text as published by the legislature; reproduced verbatim.

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.

Sponsors

Sponsors by party (alphabetical): Democratic 9

“Support” is shown only as formal sponsorship recorded by the legislature. Roll-call votes are available on the official bill page.

Recent official actions

1. July 30, 2025Signed by Governor
2. June 25, 2025Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES
3. May 15, 2025Reported Out of Committee (Education) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits
4. April 17, 2025Assigned to Education Committee in Senate
5. April 17, 2025Passed By House. Votes: 29 YES 8 NO 4 ABSENT
6. April 17, 2025Amendment HA 2 to HB 79 - Passed In House by Voice Vote
7. April 17, 2025Amendment HA 1 to HB 79 - Stricken in House
8. April 16, 2025Amendment HA 2 to HB 79 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
9. April 10, 2025Reported Out of Committee (Education) in House with 6 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits
10. April 8, 2025Amendment HA 1 to HB 79 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
11. March 18, 2025Introduced and Assigned to Education Committee in House