Delaware routinely recognizes high school students for academic achievement, athletic accomplishment, and foreign language proficiency. Until this year, artistic achievement was not on that list.
Senate Bill 260 (SB260), the Certificate of Arts Excellence, changes that. Introduced by Senator Dan Cruce and Representative Mara Gorman, it directs the Delaware Department of Education to create a formal certificate for high school students who demonstrate sustained engagement and achievement in dance, music, theater, media arts, or visual arts.
The bill builds on Senate Concurrent Resolution 109 (SCR109), passed in 2025, which put Delaware on record as supporting creative career pathways for young people. (DAA covered that story in last year’s State of CREATE.)
Both legislative efforts grew directly out of the CREATE Plan’s findings: access to arts education at the secondary level remains inconsistent across the state, particularly for students from lower-income backgrounds, and Delaware has trailed the 27 states that already require arts credits for graduation or offer formal recognition for student artists.
Neil Kirschling, Executive Director of the Delaware Arts Alliance, has watched that research move from data point to policy. “The research we did through the CREATE Plan showed that many students leave Delaware after they graduate,” Kirschling said. “There’s a brain drain of young, creative, artistic talent, because they feel like there are better opportunities — or different courses of study — outside the state.”
“At the Delaware Arts Alliance, we’d been hearing for years from teachers, students, and parents that arts education needs to be prioritized in schools,” he said. “So we had the opportunity to work with the state legislature, the Department of Education, and the Department of Labor to contribute to a report on how the arts relate to career and technical education. SB260, which creates the Certificate of Arts Excellence, really builds on that work — on what we studied last year through Senate Concurrent Resolution 109 about improving the connections between arts education and career pathways. Now the Certificate of Arts Excellence is the first implementation of those recommendations.”
“There was really broad support across all three counties, across Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature, for creating the Certificate of Arts Excellence,” he said. “I think that really shows teachers, students, and parents are calling for these additional supports and opportunities. Arts and arts education is an issue for everybody.”
At Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington, Dean Bolden has spent years pushing back against the idea that a creative career needs a backup plan.
“I have a gentleman that I’ve worked with who was an oral scientist in his day, but he also is an accomplished pianist,” he said. “The value of an arts education, as it is not being limited to the arts, can also elevate or position our students to be more employable because of the ability to be able to do both.”
Bolden sees SB260 as a formal extension of that same message.
“Without a doubt, [it] brings value to the commitment that our students have put in — years of their art and their commitment through rehearsals and practices and performances and productions and exhibits,” he said. “When the state takes initiative to be able to value their arts as they do other areas — sports or academics — I think it’s important for our students to see that, because it sends a message of value to what they do.”
That recognition is also tied to talent retention. Bolden has watched Cab Calloway graduates build successful creative careers elsewhere, often because Delaware lacked a clear, visible pipeline to support them at home.
“I have seen that many of our alumni have traveled abroad and found opportunities in Los Angeles or Vegas,” he said. “I think that when we continue to establish this art ecosystem that we’ve done through the Delaware Arts Alliance, it gives more opportunities to have these discussions about how we can continue to partner and create spaces for students to see themselves in this long term.”
Tracy Friswell-Jacobs, owner of the Delaware Arts Conservatory, theater teacher at MOT Charter High School, and chair of Delaware Thespians, served on the SCR109 panel that laid the groundwork for the new legislation. She sees the certificate as a powerful motivator for young creators.
“When you’re looking at putting the arts seal on a diploma, you’re encouraging students to reach for something that perhaps they wouldn’t have considered reaching for,” she said.
Friswell-Jacobs values the fact that SB260 puts certification criteria in the hands of educators, students, and working creative professionals.
“I would never be so presumptuous as to say that I am the only person that knows what students should be learning in a theater curriculum,” she said. “I think we need to have sort of a range of artists that are coming together to create this developmental pathway of what our expectations are at the end of the day, to reach that arts seal.”
At the same time, Friswell-Jacobs points out that expanding access to arts education requires addressing structural challenges in school funding and staffing.
“Most elementary schools have a music teacher, often part time, that they share with other schools. And an art teacher that, again, is shared with other schools,” she said. “This process needs to start at the school level, but also the state needs to buy into us doing our unit counts differently, because our teachers don’t count as much as an academic teacher in a classroom in terms of how our staffing is done in schools.”
For Kara Flexer, a senior at Appoquinimink High School and co-chair of the Delaware State Thespians, the certificate carries personal meaning.
“They always tell you don’t go the creative path, you’re going to make absolutely no money,” she said. “It kind of stunts kids’ creativity.”
Learning that Delaware was establishing formal recognition for student artists felt like a turning point. “I was really excited because I think it’s rare to have a government that recognizes the arts,” Flexer said.
To her, the certificate represents something far more meaningful than a certificate at graduation. “What this does is it recognizes that there is hard work behind it,” she said. “It’s kind of a physical embodiment of hey, we see you and this is us helping you and showing that we support you and what you want to do.”
Bolden agrees that the certificate is an encouraging starting point, though more direct engagement is needed from state leaders.
“I do think that the certificate is a start,” Bolden said, “and believe that having more presence in the spaces when we do have productions and performances and exhibits, to see more of our legislators here in a space so they can see it firsthand the impact arts education is having on our students.”
Kirschling agrees it’s a first start and has a clear picture of where it leads.
“The Certificate of Arts Excellence is really a first step in showing that there’s value, and that the state recognizes the importance of continuing to offer arts courses for students,” Kirschling said. “In five years, I’m hopeful that we don’t just have this certificate in place, but that schools are also offering more — more classes, more rigorous classes, internship opportunities, chances for creative students to leave high school with a portfolio and ready for the next step, whether that’s college or career.”
SB260 formally confirms that when a student devotes years to mastering their craft, Delaware recognizes that commitment. For students who have long been encouraged to view the arts as merely a hobby or backup plan, the law provides both validation and a foundation for future workforce initiatives.
“Other young artists should really know that the state as a whole is moving forward into making sure that they feel supported in what they’re doing,” Flexer said. “And that even though people are probably still going to tell you don’t do theater, they should do it anyway, and that people have their back.”