Senate panel hears bill to clarify access to special-education records for parents and representatives

The Delaware Senate Education Committee heard House Bill 11 on procedural changes to special-education records during its opening agenda.

The bill, described by Senate Education Committee Chair Senator Laura Sturgeon, would amend Title 14 of the Delaware Code to make clear that copies of special-education records may be provided to a parent "either personally or through a representative," such as an attorney, and to make subsections A, B and C parallel to avoid differing interpretations of current law.

The committee discussion was brief. Senator Sturgeon said the bill "comes from the Department of Education and provides some needed code updates in Title 14." Senator Tizzy Lachman asked to be added as a cosponsor.

There was no public comment on the bill during the hearing. Nicole Alvarez, the committee staff member handling logistics, said no speakers had signed up to speak on House Bill 11. The committee did not take a formal vote during the session.

The proposed change addresses an administrative interpretation that had limited record copies in some contexts to the parent personally, a practice that advocacy and administration stakeholders said created inconsistent access across programs. The bill’s language would explicitly allow provision of records through authorized representatives and align related subsections to remove ambiguity.

Because the hearing included no formal vote and no public speakers on the bill, committee members did not record final action on House Bill 11 during this meeting. Future committee action or a floor vote was not made explicit in the hearing record.