Delaware House Bill 3

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Completed Legislative Action
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 17-3)
Status: Passed on August 16 2023 - 100% progression
Action: 2023-08-16 - Signed by Governor
Text: Latest bill text (Engrossed) [HTML]

According to a recent CDC survey, the COVID pandemic exacerbated an existing mental health crisis for students. One in 5 school aged children has a mental health condition, and 45% of children may have experienced a traumatic event. This bill provides for excused absences for the mental or behavior health of a student and requires that any student taking more than 2 such excused absences will be referred to a behavioral health specialist. This bill provides a supplemental tool to identify students struggling with mental and behavioral health issues and legitimizes these struggles faced by many students. Moreover, this bill makes clear that the mental and behavioral health of students is a priority in this State.

An Act To Amend Title 14 Relating To School Attendance.

Rep. Valerie Longhurst [D]	Rep. Debra Heffernan [D]	Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown [D]	Rep. Sherae'a Moore [D]
Rep. DeShanna Neal [D]	Rep. Michael Smith [R]	Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker [D]	Sen. Laura Sturgeon [D]
Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha [D]	Rep. Kevin Hensley [R]	Rep. Jeff Hilovsky [R]	Rep. Eric Morrison [D]
Rep. Edward Osienski [D]	Rep. Stell Parker Selby [D]	Rep. Kimberly Williams [D]	Sen. Kyle Gay [D]
Sen. Kyra Hoffner [D]	Sen. Russ Huxtable [D]	Sen. Elizabeth Lockman [D]	Sen. Sarah McBride [D]

2023-06-30 - Senate - Senate Third Reading (Y: 15 N: 6 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2023-05-16 - House - House Third Reading (Y: 34 N: 3 NV: 0 Abs: 4) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2023-08-16		Signed by Governor
2023-06-30		Passed By Senate. Votes: 15 YES 6 NO
2023-06-07		Reported Out of Committee (Education) in Senate with 2 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits
2023-05-16		Assigned to Education Committee in Senate
2023-05-16		Passed By House. Votes: 34 YES 3 NO 4 ABSENT
2023-05-16		Amendment HA 1 to HB 3 - Passed In House by Voice Vote
2023-05-16		Amendment HA 1 to HB 3 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
2023-05-10		Reported Out of Committee (Education) in House with 10 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits
2023-04-25		Introduced and Assigned to Education Committee in House

Type	Source
Summary	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=130248
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=130248&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB3
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocumentEngrossment?engrossmentId=25759&docTypeId=6
Roll Call	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#54439
Roll Call	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#55116