Stephanie Smith D

Establishing the Neighborhood Services Unit within the Office of the Sheriff of Baltimore City; requiring the Neighborhood Services Unit and the Board of License Commissioners of Baltimore City to work in partnership to enforce the alcoholic beverages laws of Baltimore City and to enter into a memorandum of understanding that specifies the respective roles and responsibilities of the parties and …

Requiring the Attorney General or the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County to review and grant preclearance to certain policies before enactment or implementation; authorizing certain persons to file an action if the Attorney General or the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County fails to properly carry out certain provisions of the Act; and prohibiting acts of intimidation or obstruction …

Altering public notice requirements of the State Board of Elections, local boards of elections, and certain municipal corporations with respect to changes in administrative policy affecting voting rights; prohibiting local governments from taking any action related to the election process that results in a disparity between members of a protected class and other members of the electorate or that would …

Establishing the Task Force to Improve Attendance and Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools for the purpose of studying and making recommendations on practices to identify, prevent, and eliminate chronic absenteeism by students from schools in the State; and requiring the Task Force to report its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 31, 2025.

Prohibiting a restriction on land use that increases the cost of installing a solar collector system by at least 5% over a certain cost or that reduces the efficiency of the system by at least 10% under a certain energy generation level; authorizing a community association to impose certain restrictions on the installation of solar collector systems in common areas …

Establishing the State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Refugees and Asylees; providing the purpose of the Program is to expand food access to certain households; requiring the Department of Human Services to administer the Program; establishing that certain individuals under the Program receive a certain supplemental benefit; and requiring the Department of Human Services to adopt certain regulations.

Authorizing a person charged with murder or manslaughter in any degree or a crime under Title 3, Subtitle 2 of the Criminal Law Article to assert the defense that the person acted in self-defense and need not prove that the person believed danger was imminent or immediate if the victim had previously committed a certain act against the person.

Establishing the Maryland Positive Youth Development Commission in the State Department of Education to make grant awards to certain eligible organizations that provide positive youth development programming to certain youth; establishing the Maryland Positive Youth Development Fund as a special, nonlapsing fund; and requiring interest earnings of the Fund to be credited to the Fund.

Establishing the Maryland Institute for Literacy and Equity organized as a partnership between the University of Maryland, College Park Campus and Morgan State University to serve as a State-funded research and technical assistance center to promote literacy in the State; and requiring the Governor to include in the annual budget bill certain appropriations to the University of Maryland, College Park …

Prohibiting a person from advertising adoption services in the State, unless the person is a local department or child placement agency licensed by the Social Services Administration; authorizing the Administration to notify the Attorney General for a violation of the Act; and authorizing the Attorney General to bring an action for damages for a violation of the Act.

Requiring each public senior higher education institution and community college to submit a report on contraception access to the Maryland Higher Education Commission each year; requiring the Commission to submit a report on contraception access to the General Assembly each year beginning October 1, 2026; and requiring each community college to provide students with access to all methods of over-the-counter …

Establishing the Workforce Opportunities Grant Program to provide grants to certain organizations to support the planning and execution of workforce events and job fairs in the State; establishing the Workforce Opportunities Grant Fund as a special, nonlapsing fund to support the Program; requiring that interest earnings be credited to the Fund; and requiring, for each of fiscal years 2028 through …

Requiring the State Department of Education to develop and certain schools to implement a system to track and report certain petitions for emergency evaluations made during the school year; requiring county boards of education, certain schools, and the Department to submit certain reports on petitions for emergency evaluations; requiring the Department to convene a workgroup to study the use of …

Authorizing a public high school to allow certain homeschool students to participate in athletic activities sponsored by the school under certain circumstances; authorizing certain homeschool students to participate in an athletic activity sponsored by certain public high schools, subject to certain requirements; and requiring that certain liability insurance cover certain homeschool students under certain circumstances.

Altering the definition of a "foster care recipient" to mean an individual who resided in an out-of-home placement on or after the individual's 8th birthday rather than 13th birthday for purposes of determining eligibility for a certain tuition exemption.

Authorizing a county to adopt, by local law or ordinance, provisions prohibiting certain landlords of residential property from failing to renew a lease during the lease period or from terminating a holdover tenancy without good cause; establishing certain requirements and prohibitions for a local law or ordinance adopted in accordance with the Act; etc.

Expanding certain protections against employment discrimination to apply to temporary disabilities caused or contributed to by childbirth, menopause, or a related medical condition; and authorizing an employer to consider the operational impact of any staffing gap in determining an undue burden imposed by a certain transfer request by an employee.

Prohibiting nonpublic schools that participate in State-funded education programs from refusing to provide a current or former student or the student's parent or guardian with a transcript or taking other punitive measures regarding a student's transcript request because the student owes a debt to the nonpublic school.

Requiring a public or nonpublic elementary or secondary school receiving transfer of a student to accept certain unofficial documents to satisfy the academic records requirement from the sending school in the event that a dispute between the sending school and the student has caused the sending school to deny the request for the official academic transcript and records of the …

Including salary and wages in the compensation with regard to which full-time sworn law enforcement officers and court security officers in Baltimore City may collectively bargain; altering the person with whom the full-time sworn officers and court security officers are to seek recognition for the purposes of collectively bargaining concerning certain matters; etc.

Altering public notice requirements of the State Board of Elections, local boards of elections, and certain municipal corporations with respect to changes in administrative policy affecting voting rights; prohibiting acts of intimidation, deception, or obstruction that interfere with the right to vote; prohibiting local governments from taking any action related to the election process that results in a disparity between …

Authorizing the introduction of evidence that a certain defendant was the victim of domestic violence and that the domestic violence was a significant contributing factor to the commission of a certain crime as a mitigating factor at sentencing of the defendant or a hearing on a motion for modification or reduction of a sentence; and establishing related procedures.