---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MANDATORY SENTENCES FOR JUVENILES."
description: "This bill clarifies House Bill 307 from 2018 by making it clear that a 6-month or 12-month mandatory commitment to Level 5 incarceration or institutional confinement for a juvenile only applies to adjudications of delinquency for the charge of Robbery First Degree or Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a Felony if the offense was committed after the child’s 16th birthday."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 314"
citation: "Delaware HB 314 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Debra Heffernan", "Sarah McBride", "Sherry Dorsey Walker", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2022-03-03"
last_action: "2022-10-26"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3a88f8b5-fb89-4096-b91b-b2eb431f3c50"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=79162"
source_hash: "db4d97e99e3f60820b8a962055798cbd2fc1b44ced556bd93d36becd5fc51a12"
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 314 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MANDATORY SENTENCES FOR JUVENILES.

This bill clarifies House Bill 307 from 2018 by making it clear that a 6-month or 12-month mandatory commitment to Level 5 incarceration or institutional confinement for a juvenile only applies to adjudications of delinquency for the charge of Robbery First Degree or Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a Felony if the offense was committed after the child’s 16th birthday.

## 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=79162&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB314)

## Votes

- SM — **38–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- Sarah McBride — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-03-03** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-03-23** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 2 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-05-05** Passed By House. Votes: 38 YES 3 ABSENT `passage`
- **2022-05-05** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-08** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2022-06-29** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2022-10-26** 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/3a88f8b5-fb89-4096-b91b-b2eb431f3c50`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).