SB 204 – Streamlining the Kids Department Hiring Process – Passes Senate

Kids Department. I like that. Senator Kyle Evans Gay, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 204, uses it to describe the Department of Services for Children, Youth & Their Families (“DSCYF”). I say she should introduce a bill renaming the department at once.

Back to Senate Bill 204, the Senate passed it unanimously yesterday. The bill now goes to the House. The bill would allow the DSCYF…er ah… Kids Department to conditionally hire an applicant and begin training the person after they have provided proof that they have submitted to the required drug testing’. 

Senator Gay: “This legislation will help keep critical state services at The Kids Department fully staffed so they may better serve some of our most vulnerable neighbors during a time when so many of our state agencies are facing workforce shortages.”

“I introduced this bill after hearing from the leadership of the Department that they want and need a streamlined, conditional hiring process to retain quality candidates. Other state agencies have a process like this and it works well. To ensure safety standards are maintained, trainees will not work directly with the populations served by the Department until they have completed the hiring process and passed all required screenings.”

Senate Bill 204 Sponsors	Yes Votes	No Votes
Gay, Ennis, Hansen, Lockman, Poore, Pettyjohn	Senate Passed 21-0. Brown Ennis Gay Hansen Lockman Mantzavinos Paradee Pinkney Poore S.McBride Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh Bonini Hocker Lawson Lopez Pettyjohn Richardson Wilson
Griffith, Heffernan, Longhurst, Lambert, Morrison, Briggs King, Gray
Current Status:	Sent to House

Secure care positions in the Department of Correction, Delaware Psychiatric Center, and DSCYF’s Prevention and Behavioral Health and Youth Rehabilitative Services facilities are historically hard to fill. Because of the sensitive nature of these positions, there is a thorough application and vetting process for applicants, the last steps of which are the pre-employment background checks and drug testing. Despite numerous ongoing efforts to recruit and retain applicants for these positions within DSCYF’s facilities, interested applicants often choose to abandon the lengthy application process in favor of opportunities for faster hiring processes at large employers located nearby.

Currently, the statute allows DSCYF to make a conditional offer of employment to an applicant who has submitted to the required pre-employment drug testing. This Act would allow DSCYF to conditionally hire an applicant and begin training the person after they have provided proof that they have submitted to the required drug testing. This ability is in line with § 5139 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code, which allows the Delaware Psychiatric Center to conditionally hire an applicant “to maintain an appropriate level of patient care,” and § 8922 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code, which simply states that the Department of Correction must test “all security sensitive applicants and applicant employees.”