SB 204 DE

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Became Law

This Act amends the Department of Services for Children, Youth & Their Families (“DSCYF”) required drug testing statute to gain parity in pre-employment drug testing procedures across state agencies that provide services for children and secure care for children or adults. Secure care positions in the Department of Correction, Delaware Psychiatric Center, and DSCYF’s Prevention and Behavioral Health and Youth Rehabilitative Services facilities are historically hard to fill. Because of the sensitive nature of these positions, there is a thorough application and vetting process for applicants, the last steps of which are the pre-employment background checks and drug testing. Despite numerous ongoing efforts to recruit and retain applicants for these positions within DSCYF’s facilities, interested applicants often choose to abandon the lengthy application process in favor of opportunities for faster hiring processes at large employers located nearby. Currently, the statute allows DSCYF to make a conditional offer of employment to an applicant who has submitted to the required pre-employment drug testing. This Act would allow DSCYF to conditionally hire an applicant and begin training the person after they have provided proof that they have submitted to the required drug testing. This ability is in line with § 5139 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code, which allows the Delaware Psychiatric Center to conditionally hire an applicant “to maintain an appropriate level of patient care,” and § 8922 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code, which simply states that the Department of Correction must test “all security sensitive applicants and applicant employees.” This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

• Kyle Evans Gay · primary
• Bryan Townsend Democratic · primary
• Krista Griffith Democratic · primary
• Debra Heffernan Democratic · primary
• Valerie Longhurst · primary

1. Dec 16, 2021 Introduced and Assigned to Elections & Government Affairs Committee in Senate · upper
2. Jan 12, 2022 Reported Out of Committee (Elections & Government Affairs) in Senate with 4 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits · upper
3. Jan 13, 2022 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES · upper
4. Jan 14, 2022 Assigned to Administration Committee in House · lower
5. Jan 18, 2022 Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 1 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits · lower
6. Jan 26, 2022 Suspension of Rules in House · lower
7. Jan 27, 2022 Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 2 ABSENT · lower
8. Feb 7, 2022 Signed by Governor · executive

The published texts of this bill as it moves through the legislature. Each links to the official document on the state legislature site. Data from OpenStates.

• Bill Text · HTML
• Bill Text · PDF