---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EXPUNGEMENT OF RECORDS OF ADULT ARREST AND CONVICTION."
description: "In 2019, the 150th General Assembly enacted Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 37, which reformed the adult expungement process in this State. After a year of implementing this new expungement process, Senate Bill No. 38 was introduced to make changes to clarify language or increase the efficiency of the process."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "SB 38"
citation: "Delaware SB 38 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Darius J. Brown", "Franklin D. Cooke", "Sean M. Lynn", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 8
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2021-03-04"
last_action: "2021-11-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d3b85bf9-56ef-4351-a48c-80c0f6aa42b9"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48419"
source_hash: "214e8a116e1750008ece3ca5029eca3320c260b8fb77fd2102962f24bbee6e38"
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 38 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EXPUNGEMENT OF RECORDS OF ADULT ARREST AND CONVICTION.

In 2019, the 150th General Assembly enacted Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 37, which reformed the adult expungement process in this State. After a year of implementing this new expungement process, Senate Bill No. 38 was introduced to make changes to clarify language or increase the efficiency of the process.

## 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=48419&legislationTypeId=6&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SS1forSB38)

## Votes

- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- 3/5 — **41–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — primary (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-03-04** Adopted in lieu of the original bill SB 38, and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-10** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 4 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-03-16** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2021-03-17** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-20** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 3 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-23** Suspension of Rules in House
- **2021-04-29** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2021-11-08** 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/d3b85bf9-56ef-4351-a48c-80c0f6aa42b9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).