Delaware lawmakers support veterans during the 2025 legislative session
- David Rugg
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 20
The 2025 session concluded on June 30th. Legislators passed a number of bills that will positively impact the lives of Delaware’s veterans.
The Delaware Democratic Veterans and Military Families Caucus would like to thank Delaware’s veterans, legislators, caucus members, members of the Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs and the Governor for their support of these bills.
The most impactful bill for veterans this session starts the process of creating a Department of Veterans Affairs with a cabinet-level secretary. Veterans will have a seat at the table to directly advocate for and administer programs relating to veterans in the State of Delaware. The Governor is expected to sign the legislation.
Other significant changes to Delaware laws that the Governor is expected to sign include:
- establishing the Office of Suicide Prevention to address suicide prevention and includes a member of the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs as part of the process.
- adding “military status” as a protected class for purposes of the State’s public accommodations, housing, insurance, education, and employment laws.
- providing that March 9 will be known as 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion Day and will be commemorated in this State by appropriate ceremonies to honor the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion members.
- making clear that veterans of all 8 services branches are qualified to obtain veteran designation on their driver licenses.
- making clear that absence required by military service is not counted as absence when it applies to residency requirements for school board participation.
- allowing school board members to attend meetings by a remote method under certain limited circumstances relating to health or military deployments.
- amending the existing code relating to Delaware National Guard education benefits by switching from a system that reimburses service members to a system that pays certain tuition and fees, on behalf of a service member, directly to a Delaware postsecondary institution.
- exempts from state child care licensing requirements a military family child care provider that serves only children eligible for Department of Defense subsidized care that is either located on a military base or federal property, certified as a family child care provider by a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. Coast Guard, or both.
- making changes to the Behavioral Health Consortium and the Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission that includes one veteran who has served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the National Guard or the Reserves, and who has been impacted by behavioral health in this State.
- names the hill west of Mill Creek situated on New Castle County parcel number 0803100018 where the Spring Grove Mill House sits as “General Washington’s Hill of Deception”. This is the site of one of the most impactful combat events that occurred on Delaware soil during the Revolutionary War.
- providing veterans organizations Grants-In-Aid totaling $839,000.
There were a couple of other significant bills introduced during the session that didn’t make it to the floor for a vote and will have to be reintroduced in the 2026 session starting in January. These include bills that:
- regulate persons who are paid for advising or assisting with veterans' benefits earned by serving our nation in the military where the veteran can obtain that advice for free.
- increase the personal income tax pension exclusion from $12,500 to $25,000.
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