NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Todd Hallidy

Phone: (302) 577-8314

Date: July 2, 2001

A.G. BRADY'S CHILD SAFETY PROPOSALS PASS LEGISLATURE

(Wilmington, DE) - Attorney General M. Jane Brady today thanked members of the General Assembly for adopting several components of her Legislative Agenda that will protect children. All three are awaiting the Governor's signature.

• - H.B. 209, reforming Delaware's school crime reporting law, was passed last week in the state Senate. The bill requires school administrators to immediately notify police when they learn of allegations of sexual crimes committed by school employees against students, and specifically includes sex crimes committed by employees that occur off campus.

According to Attorney General Brady, "These reforms will assure prompt police investigations in these cases, and will enhance the state's ability to prosecute these cases appropriately." Brady thanked Representative Terry R. Spence and Senator Patricia M. Blevins for sponsoring the bill and guiding it through the General Assembly.

• - S.B. 114, which modernizes and strengthens the language of Delaware's Endangering the Welfare of a Child Law by extending criminal liability to any person responsible for the care or supervision of a child, and by increasing the penalties for persons who knowingly allow sex offenders to care for or supervise their child.

Attorney General Brady noted, "This bill recognizes the realities of the many complex child-rearing arrangements that exist in modern society and changes the law accordingly."

• - S.B.124, which insures that the prohibition on overtaking or passing stopped school buses extends to driveways, parking lots and private roadways, whenever the bus is stopped to take on or discharge children. Present motor vehicle provisions apply only to traffic on public roadways. The bill was sponsored by Senator Nancy W. Cook and Representative Gregory R. Lavelle.

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