---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO TRUANCY."
description: "This Act eliminates the ability of a court to suspend a student’s driving privileges or hunting license for truancy."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 438"
citation: "Delaware HB 438 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Charles Potter Jr.", "Margaret Rose Henry"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-06-05"
last_action: "2018-08-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f28abc68-2f24-43dd-8c87-175666ae2827"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26750"
source_hash: "cf0e70fae225795fdc4649b37e068fbec05f55651963c961462aaa1a20b7b820"
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 438 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO TRUANCY.

This Act eliminates the ability of a court to suspend a student’s driving privileges or hunting license for truancy.

## 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=26750&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB438)

## Votes

- SM — **25–15** (pass) · lower
- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Charles Potter Jr. — primary (person)
- Margaret Rose Henry — primary (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-06-05** Introduced and Assigned to Education Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-06** Reported Out of Committee (Education) in House with 9 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-26** Passed By House. Votes: 25 YES 15 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-06-26** Assigned to Education Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-27** Reported Out of Committee (Education) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2018-08-29** 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/f28abc68-2f24-43dd-8c87-175666ae2827`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).