---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE JUVENILE OFFENDER CIVIL CITATION PROGRAM."
description: "This bill seeks to expand the eligibility criteria for the Juvenile Offender Civil Citation Program by including the offense of possession of drug paraphernalia and permitting a second referral to the Juvenile Offender Civil Citation Program where the first referral occurred more than 18 months ago and was not a referral for the same offense."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 8"
citation: "Delaware HB 8 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Debra Heffernan", "Harris B. McDowell", "James Johnson"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-05-10"
last_action: "2017-10-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d44d85c1-7588-4ef4-b7ab-a1a4f9f1747b"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25761"
source_hash: "8a49d0c361f990a6e753ebf94bf2bbe2118ba0ce367e1fbcf81c23d2a8f2c914"
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 8 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE JUVENILE OFFENDER CIVIL CITATION PROGRAM.

This bill seeks to expand the eligibility criteria for the Juvenile Offender Civil Citation Program by including the offense of possession of drug paraphernalia and permitting a second referral to the Juvenile Offender Civil Citation Program where the first referral occurred more than 18 months ago and was not a referral for the same offense.

## 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=25761&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB8)

## Votes

- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — primary (person)
- James Johnson — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Charles Potter Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-05-10** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-17** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 4 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-06-20** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2017-06-20** Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-06-28** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-06-28** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-10-12** 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/d44d85c1-7588-4ef4-b7ab-a1a4f9f1747b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).