---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO ADOPTION."
description: "Section 1 of this Act amends Section 903 of Title 13 of the Delaware Code. Substantively, this Act allows persons who are not married but who are cohabitating to jointly adopt a child that is not theirs. The Act also rewrites the statute so as to be more clearly understandable. Section 2 of this Act amends Section 951 of Title 13 of the Delaware Code. It allows persons who are not married but who are cohabitating to jointly adopt a child that is not theirs. The Act also changes the phrase \"husband and wife\" to \"married couple.\""
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "SB 94"
citation: "Delaware SB 94 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Sherry Dorsey Walker"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-05-09"
last_action: "2019-07-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d98636c7-b3a0-4af0-a4aa-ac8210775a95"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47461"
source_hash: "74b098478b50b3d35f2a050fe0eeaafdf52289aa38a9b77614d7b930686e7171"
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 SB 94 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO ADOPTION.

Section 1 of this Act amends Section 903 of Title 13 of the Delaware Code. Substantively, this Act allows persons who are not married but who are cohabitating to jointly adopt a child that is not theirs. The Act also rewrites the statute so as to be more clearly understandable. Section 2 of this Act amends Section 951 of Title 13 of the Delaware Code. It allows persons who are not married but who are cohabitating to jointly adopt a child that is not theirs. The Act also changes the phrase "husband and wife" to "married couple."

## 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=47461&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB94)

## Votes

- SM — **20–1** (pass) · upper
- SM — **37–4** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
- Catherine Cloutier — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Ernesto B Lopez — cosponsor (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
- Michael F. Smith — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-05-09** Introduced and Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-05-15** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 4 Favorable `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-05-16** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 NO `passage`
- **2019-05-30** Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-05** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 8 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2019-06-30** Passed By House. Votes: 37 YES 4 NO `passage`
- **2019-07-30** 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/d98636c7-b3a0-4af0-a4aa-ac8210775a95`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).