Legislation signed into law Tuesday to expand background checks for childcare workers will be known as the “Joseph R. ‘Beau’ Biden III Child Protection Act.”
Under the legislation, background checks will now be mandatory for part-time childcare facilities and most summer programs. They were already required for public school teachers, full-time childcare professionals and state employees and contractors working with children.
Those run by private schools may be exempt if they notify each parent that they’re opting not to look into employees’ or volunteers’ criminal history.
Jennifer Ranji, Secretary of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, says despite many youth camps conducting background checks in practice, it’s important to make that as universal as possible.
“That was an area where every one of us sitting around the table and I think every adult that I’ve ever talked to about it were shocked to find out that the summer camp where they might’ve been dropping their children off is not required to have background checks,” Ranji said.
“Whatever we think about government regulation, overregulation and that issue, this has just become an expectation that parents would have.”
Beau Biden was known for his work in strengthening the state’s child abuse laws while serving as attorney general, adding new criminal statutes and enforcing lengthier sentencing guidelines for those convicted.
He also forewent a run for a U.S. Senate seat previously held by his father, Vice President Joe Biden, to prosecute Earl Bradley, one of the most prolific pedophiles in American history
While signing the bill into law, Gov. Jack Markell (D) told his widow Hallie Biden and sister Ashley that the state will carry forward those efforts.
“We know he woke up every day unbelievably focused on this issue of how to keep Delaware’s kids safe,” said Markell. “It’s what animated him, it’s what motivated him.”
Neither family member made public comments at the ceremony.
Biden died in May from brain cancer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
He had a small lesion removed from his brain in 2013 after becoming weak during a family vacation. Prior to that, the vice president’s eldest son experienced a mild stroke in 2010.
He had widely been expected to run for governor in 2016 – even a few weeks before his final hospitalization.
“[The law] does exactly what we set out to do and that is to better protect the children of Delaware and Beau would be proud of that,” added prime sponsor Sen. Karen Peterson (D-Stanton), a longtime family friend of the Bidens.
The legislation also consolidated laws relating to childcare background checks, which were scattered throughout Delaware code.
Co-sponsor Rep. Stephanie T. Bolden (D-Wilmington East) says this will help low income families feel more comfortable with the limited options they have to keep their kids occupied during summer breaks.
“They just accept any camp that’s open and that’s not always the best place for our kids to be because the kids are taken advantage of sometimes in those situations,” Bolden said.
The law goes into effect in January.
