---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO WELFARE."
description: "This legislation makes two minor modifications to Delaware’s background check process for prospective employees and volunteers at child-serving entities. It: 1) clarifies that an employer who must first obtain a signed authorization from the prospective employee for a Child Protection Registry Check, must attach that authorization to the request for the Registry check; and 2) only those persons currently on the Child Protection Registry may impact an employer’s decision whether to hire a person who is not otherwise expressly excluded from employment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 371"
citation: "Delaware HB 371 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brian J. Bushweller", "Debra Heffernan"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 5
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-04-12"
last_action: "2018-09-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0975670f-c9e7-4381-aa9f-edabbb1fe8b8"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26478"
source_hash: "98990c51d1b05a7e8d6dd5670a6ec2a5e4ce2854ada5f411e749a0f29957cc86"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 371 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO WELFARE.

This legislation makes two minor modifications to Delaware’s background check process for prospective employees and volunteers at child-serving entities. It: 1) clarifies that an employer who must first obtain a signed authorization from the prospective employee for a Child Protection Registry Check, must attach that authorization to the request for the Registry check; and 2) only those persons currently on the Child Protection Registry may impact an employer’s decision whether to hire a person who is not otherwise expressly excluded from employment.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26478&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB371)

## Votes

- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **39–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Brian J. Bushweller — primary (person)
- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-04-12** Introduced and Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-04-25** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 10 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-27** Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 1 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-07-01** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-09-13** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0975670f-c9e7-4381-aa9f-edabbb1fe8b8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).