Bill Commons

DE HB 97

enacted

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 14 AND 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS, AND SALARY SUPPLEMENTS.

Delaware · 2025-2026 Regular Session (153rd General Assembly) · lower

Follow this bill’s action updates (Atom)

Subscribe in a feed reader. The feed covers recorded actions from the last 30 days; Bill Commons may record an action after it happened at the legislature.

Quick answers

Did DE HB 97 pass?

Yes. DE HB 97 has been enacted into law. Latest recorded action (2025-09-02): Signed by Governor

What is DE HB 97 about?

This Act ensures that a public school employee may not work directly with students unsupervised without a valid permit or license issued by the DOE’s Professional Standards Boards or an approved license issued under Title 24. To that end, this Act creates a new permit requirement for any paraprofessional or student support and classroom position, including specialist interns, year-long residents, full time substitute teachers, substitute teachers seeking certification, student teachers, and classroom aides. The following employees are exempt from the permitting and licensing requirements: non-instructional administrators; nutrition staff; custodial staff; transportation staff; clerical staff; charter school heads exempt under § 507(c) of Title 14; and substitute teachers seriving for less than 12 consecutive weeks in a school. The same laws, procedures, penalties, and safeguards that apply to the issuance, suspension, and revocation of a license under Chapter 12 of Title 14, will apply to a permit. The DOE may require reimbursement of any funds disbursed to district or charter schools for an employee without a license or permit, who holds a position requiring a license or permit. The DOE may also require reimbursement for an employee that is working under an expired license or permit. Finally, this Act increases the maximum supplement amount an employee may earn for accepting additional responsibility assignments that impact student achievement. The supplement may be no more than $5,000, rather than $1,500. It also directs the Department to update the Department of Education PHRST code manual so that the position codes align to titles of positions that are currently used by educators, and outdated codes are deleted. The new system codes must be in effect by the start of the 2026-2027 school year. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Who sponsors DE HB 97?

John "Jack" Walsh, Spiros Mantzavinos, Josue O Ortega and 9 others are the primary sponsors of DE HB 97.

Description

This Act ensures that a public school employee may not work directly with students unsupervised without a valid permit or license issued by the DOE’s Professional Standards Boards or an approved license issued under Title 24. To that end, this Act creates a new permit requirement for any paraprofessional or student support and classroom position, including specialist interns, year-long residents, full time substitute teachers, substitute teachers seeking certification, student teachers, and classroom aides. The following employees are exempt from the permitting and licensing requirements: non-instructional administrators; nutrition staff; custodial staff; transportation staff; clerical staff; charter school heads exempt under § 507(c) of Title 14; and substitute teachers seriving for less than 12 consecutive weeks in a school. The same laws, procedures, penalties, and safeguards that apply to the issuance, suspension, and revocation of a license under Chapter 12 of Title 14, will apply to a permit. The DOE may require reimbursement of any funds disbursed to district or charter schools for an employee without a license or permit, who holds a position requiring a license or permit. The DOE may also require reimbursement for an employee that is working under an expired license or permit. Finally, this Act increases the maximum supplement amount an employee may earn for accepting additional responsibility assignments that impact student achievement. The supplement may be no more than $5,000, rather than $1,500. It also directs the Department to update the Department of Education PHRST code manual so that the position codes align to titles of positions that are currently used by educators, and outdated codes are deleted. The new system codes must be in effect by the start of the 2026-2027 school year. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Introduced
2025-03-27
Latest action
2025-09-02 — Signed by Governor
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Sponsors

  • John "Jack" Walshprimary
  • Spiros Mantzavinosprimary
  • Josue O Ortegaprimary
  • Sarah McBrideprimary
  • Michael F. Smithprimary
  • Melanie Ross Levinprimary
  • Ray Seigfriedprimary
  • Russell Huxtableprimary
  • Mara Gormanprimary
  • William Bushprimary
  • Laura V. Sturgeonprimary
  • Kimberly Williamsprimary

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

Newest first

  1. 2025-09-02

    Signed by Governor

    executive-signature

  2. 2025-06-26

    Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES

    passage

  3. 2025-05-15

    Reported Out of Committee (Education) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits

    committee-passage

  4. 2025-05-06

    Assigned to Education Committee in Senate

    introduction,referral-committee

  5. 2025-05-06

    Passed By House. Votes: 30 YES 2 NOT VOTING 9 ABSENT

    passage

  6. 2025-05-06

    Amendment HA 1 to HB 97 - Passed In House by Voice Vote

    amendment-passage

  7. 2025-04-09

    Reported Out of Committee (Education) in House with 1 Favorable, 10 On Its Merits

    committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable

  8. 2025-04-08

    Amendment HA 1 to HB 97 - Introduced and Placed With Bill

    amendment-introduction

  9. 2025-03-27

    Introduced and Assigned to Education Committee in House

    introduction,referral-committee

Versions

Documents

Votes

  • SM

    2025-05-06 · pass · 30-0

    Member-level votes (41)
    • Stephanie T. Bolden: yes
    • Frank Burns: yes
    • William Bush: yes
    • William J. Carson: yes
    • Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha: other
    • Richard G. Collins: yes
    • Franklin D. Cooke: yes
    • Daniel B. Short: other
    • Timothy D. Dukes: yes
    • Mara Gorman: yes
    • Ronald E. Gray: yes
    • Krista Griffith: yes
    • Kerri Evelyn Harris: yes
    • Debra Heffernan: yes
    • Kevin S Hensley: yes
    • Jeff Hilovsky: yes
    • Valerie Jones Giltner: other
    • 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: other
    • Eric Morrison: yes
    • DeShanna U Neal: yes
    • Josue O Ortega: yes
    • Edward S. Osienski: yes
    • Stell Parker Selby: other
    • Sophie Phillips: other
    • Charles S Postles Jr.: yes
    • Cyndie Romer: yes
    • Melanie Ross Levin: yes
    • Sherae'a Moore: other
    • Bryan W. Shupe: yes
    • Claire Snyder-Hall: yes
    • Jeffrey N. Spiegelman: other
    • Jesse R. Vanderwende: other
    • Madinah Wilson-Anton: other
    • Lyndon D. Yearick: yes

  • SM

    2025-06-26 · 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

https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=142023

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T03:53:51.443619Z

Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:

Source and document changesStatus and relationship changes

Session-wide evidence can include changes to other bills:

Bulk imports for this sessionSession dates and activity

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=DE&identifier=HB 97. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

  • Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
  • Committee referrals are not yet captured.

See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.