DE HB 79
enactedAN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LIMITATIONS ON THE USE OF SECLUSION AND RESTRAINT.
Delaware · 2025-2026 Regular Session (153rd General Assembly) · lower
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Quick answers
Did DE HB 79 pass?
Yes. DE HB 79 has been enacted into law. Latest recorded action (2025-07-30): Signed by Governor
What is DE HB 79 about?
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.
Who sponsors DE HB 79?
Spiros Mantzavinos, David P. Sokola, Mara Gorman and 5 others are the primary sponsors of DE HB 79.
Description
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.
- Introduced
- 2025-03-18
- Latest action
- 2025-07-30 — Signed by Governor
- Bill type
- bill
- Last updated
- —
Sponsors
- Spiros Mantzavinosprimary
- David P. Sokolaprimary
- Mara Gormanprimary
- Melanie Ross Levinprimary
- Bryant L. Richardsonprimary
- Nicole Pooreprimary
- Josue O Ortegaprimary
- Eric Morrisonprimary
Committees
Not provided by source.
Action timeline
Newest first
2025-07-30
Signed by Governor
executive-signature
2025-06-25
Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES
passage
2025-05-15
Reported Out of Committee (Education) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits
committee-passage
2025-04-17
Assigned to Education Committee in Senate
introduction,referral-committee
2025-04-17
Passed By House. Votes: 29 YES 8 NO 4 ABSENT
passage
2025-04-17
Amendment HA 2 to HB 79 - Passed In House by Voice Vote
amendment-passage
2025-04-17
Amendment HA 1 to HB 79 - Stricken in House
2025-04-16
Amendment HA 2 to HB 79 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
amendment-introduction
2025-04-10
Reported Out of Committee (Education) in House with 6 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable
2025-04-08
Amendment HA 1 to HB 79 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
amendment-introduction
2025-03-18
Introduced and Assigned to Education Committee in House
introduction,referral-committee
Versions
Documents
Votes
SM
2025-04-17 · pass · 29-8
Member-level votes (41)
- Stephanie T. Bolden: other
- Frank Burns: yes
- William Bush: yes
- William J. Carson: yes
- Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha: other
- Richard G. Collins: no
- Franklin D. Cooke: yes
- Daniel B. Short: yes
- Timothy D. Dukes: yes
- Mara Gorman: yes
- Ronald E. Gray: no
- Krista Griffith: yes
- Kerri Evelyn Harris: yes
- Debra Heffernan: yes
- Kevin S Hensley: yes
- Jeff Hilovsky: no
- Valerie Jones Giltner: no
- Kendra Johnson: yes
- Kimberly Williams: yes
- Kamela T Smith: yes
- Larry Lambert: yes
- Sean M. Lynn: other
- Michael F. Smith: yes
- Melissa Minor-Brown: yes
- Shannon Morris: no
- Eric Morrison: yes
- DeShanna U Neal: yes
- Josue O Ortega: yes
- Edward S. Osienski: yes
- Stell Parker Selby: other
- Sophie Phillips: yes
- Charles S Postles Jr.: no
- Cyndie Romer: yes
- Melanie Ross Levin: yes
- Sherae'a Moore: yes
- Bryan W. Shupe: yes
- Claire Snyder-Hall: yes
- Jeffrey N. Spiegelman: yes
- Jesse R. Vanderwende: no
- Madinah Wilson-Anton: yes
- Lyndon D. Yearick: no
SM
2025-06-25 · pass · 21-0
Member-level votes (21)
- Darius J. Brown: yes
- Eric Buckson: yes
- Daniel Cruce: yes
- Stephanie L. Hansen: yes
- Gerald W. Hocker: yes
- Kyra L. Hoffner: yes
- Russell Huxtable: yes
- Dave G. Lawson: yes
- S. Elizabeth Lockman: yes
- Spiros Mantzavinos: yes
- Trey Paradee: yes
- Brian Pettyjohn: yes
- Marie Pinkney: yes
- Nicole Poore: yes
- Bryant L. Richardson: yes
- Ray Seigfried: yes
- David P. Sokola: yes
- Laura V. Sturgeon: yes
- Bryan Townsend: yes
- John "Jack" Walsh: yes
- David L. Wilson: yes
Related bills
No related bills recorded for this bill.
Official source
Attribution
Data from openstates_api_sync, retrieved 2026-08-26T22:52:09.738708Z
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