Shown verbatim: the complete text as captured from the official PDF posted by the Delaware General Assembly, fetched 2026-09-25. Page and line markers are part of the official record; nothing is edited or removed. This is the current version. The official bill page.
SPONSOR: Rep. Romer & Sen. Lockman
Reps. Gorman, Harris; Sen. Hoffner
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
153rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY
HOUSE BILL NO. 438
AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SERVICE LETTERS, CHILD-CARE
FACILITIES, AND HEALTH-CARE FACILITIES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:
1 Section 1. Amend § 708, Title 19 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strike through and
2 insertions as shown by underline as follows and by redesignating accordingly:
3 § 708. Special employment practices relating to health-care and child-care facilities.
4 (a) Definitions. — (1) “Child care Child-care facility” means any child care child-care facility which is required to
5 be licensed by the Department of Education, Office of Child Care Licensing.
6 (2) “Child-serving entity” means as defined in § 309 of Title 31.
7 (2) (3) “Direct access” means the opportunity to have personal contact with persons receiving care during the
8 course of one’s assigned duties.
9 (3) (4) “Health care Health-care facility” means any custodial or residential facility where health, nutritional
10 or personal care is provided for persons, including long-term care facilities as defined in § 1102 of Title 16, hospitals,
11 home health care health-care agencies, and adult day care day-care facilities.
12 (4) (5) “Person seeking employment” means any person applying for employment in a health care health-care
13 facility or child care child-care facility that affords direct access to persons receiving care at such a facility, or a person
14 applying for licensure to operate a child care child-care facility.
15 (b) Service letter. — (1) a. No employer who operates a health-care facility or child-care facility, or provides
16 health, nutritional, or personal care in such a facility, shall hire any person seeking employment without obtaining 1 or
17 more service letters regarding that person, provided such person has been previously employed. The Any service letter(s)
18 letters obtained must include a service letter from the person’s current or most recent previous employer. In addition, if a
19 person seeking employment was employed in a health-care facility or child-care facility by a child-serving entity within the
20 past 5 years, the employer shall also must obtain a service letter from all such employer(s). employers. If the person seeking
21 employment has not been previously employed, or was self-employed, then the employer must require the person to
22 provide letters of reference from 2 adults who are familiar with the person, but who are not relatives of the person.
HD : CD : SCD Page 1 of 2 Released: 05/21/2026 11:47 AM
1041530019
23 b. If the prospective employer attempts to obtain a service letter from a previous employer and the previous
24 employer fails to respond, the previous employer’s failure to respond must be documented and reported to the Department
25 of Labor.
26 (c) Temporary agencies. — Any temporary agency responsible for providing temporary employees to a health care
27 health-care facility or child-care facility, when such employees qualify as “persons seeking employment” for purposes of
28 paragraph (a)(4) of this section, is considered an employer and is responsible for complying with the requirements of this
29 section.
SYNOPSIS
This Act adds the definition of child-serving entity for the purpose of requiring a service letter verification from
any child-serving entity where an employee may have worked. “Child-serving entity” is already defined in § 309 of Title 31
and includes DSCYF, residential child-care facilities, public and private schools, youth camps, summer schools, and other
entities. If a previous employer fails to respond to a service letter, this Act also requires that the prospective employee
report the failure to respond to the DOL.
HD : CD : SCD Page 2 of 2 Released: 05/21/2026 11:47 AM
1041530019Every fact on this page links to its source, starting with the official bill record.