Embracing the spirit of its name (The Green in Dover and the New Castle Green), The Green will provide an open-air meeting place for Delawareans to discuss events, consider issues and share ideas. This radio and online magazine will present the highest quality Delaware news and information. Through informed reporting, nuanced storytelling and in-depth interviews, The Green reaches past stereotypes and knee-jerk reactions to encourage a fuller, more robust discovery of Delaware, today.
Report offers first look at results of anti-bullying legislation
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State officials have their first look at how recent anti-bullying legislation is working in schools.
A report released by Lt Governor Matt Denn and Attorney General Beau Biden this week assesses how well Delaware's public schools are implementing laws passed in 2012 to combat bullying.
For the most part – schools are on the right track – although a handful of school districts had not fully adopted the Department of Education's cyber-bullying policy or did not clearly indicate how they’d communicated the new policy to students. Also, a majority of Delaware's charter schools, 12 of them, are not yet in compliance with that law.
We asked Brandywine School District superintendent Mark Holodick to help us understand what this first report tells us about the state of bullying in Delaware.
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State unveils plan to address growth of Alzheimer’s Disease
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Earlier this week Delaware’s Department of Health and Social Services unveiled a new statewide plan to address the needs of the growing number of Delawareans living with Alzheimer's Disease.
Currently about 14,000 state residents over sixty-five are battling the disease and that’s expected to rise 33 percent to around 16,000 by 2025, beacuse of the state’s aging population.
A state task force helped develop the plan’s five major goals to cope with the issues those numbers create. The Alzheimer's Association’s Delaware Valley Chapter was part of that process and The Green talked to its executive director Katie Macklin about the plan this week. (More)
Dover High program helps Delaware dropout rate hit 30 year low
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The state Department of Education released an update on the drop out rate in Delaware schools this week and it painted an improving picture. The rate is at its lowest level in three decades, dropping a full percentage point from 3.9 to 2.9%.
State officials singled out Dover High School as an example of one school contributing to that drop. It’s Daylight credit recovery program is credited with helping the rate there plummet from 3.8% a year ago to 1.6% this year. The Green visited Dover High to learn more about that initiative from Evelyn Edney, co-principal for administration. (More)
Explaining use of social media as evidence in First State courts
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Earlier this month – Delaware’s Supreme Court weighed in on use of social media as evidence in court. The Court’s decision in the appeal of a 2011 assault case where Facebook posts were used to help secure a conviction set the standard for allowing posts from sites like that and Twitter to be considered. Essentially, the court said they’ll assume you wrote a post or tweet and the burden is on you to prove otherwise.
I sat down with Widener Law's Jules Epstein about that decision and some other legal issues surrounding social media and the courts.
Enlighten Me: Delaware's EV charging station network
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This week in our Enlighten Me segment – We’re charged up about electric cars.
This week, the state and the University of Delaware announced they’re teaming up to create a network of about a half dozen electric car or EV charging stations. The Green talked to UD professor Willett Kempton – an expert in alternative energy issues – and a local EV owner about what that network could mean to the First State. (More)
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