---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11, TITLE 13, TITLE 16, AND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHILD ABUSE."
description: "Sections 1 through 6 of this Act revise the State's existing child abuse laws as follows:"
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "152"
identifier: "HB 182"
citation: "Delaware HB 182 (152)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brian Pettyjohn", "Bryan Townsend", "Bryant L. Richardson", "Cyndie Romer", "Kendra Johnson", "Krista Griffith", "Laura V. Sturgeon", "Nicole Poore", "Peter C. Schwartzkopf", "Russell Huxtable", "Sean Matthews", "Sherry Dorsey Walker", "Spiros Mantzavinos"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 9
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2023-06-01"
last_action: "2023-07-31"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/50c4f48e-ea46-4524-965a-508100bde1d4"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=140491"
source_hash: "769dc510934f3d24f8aacb2a8d4902f5d7db1611e25a0a0a9c749c16063024f3"
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 182 (152) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11, TITLE 13, TITLE 16, AND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHILD ABUSE.

Sections 1 through 6 of this Act revise the State's existing child abuse laws as follows:

## 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=140491&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB182)

## Votes

- SM — **39–1** (pass) · lower
- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Brian Pettyjohn — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Bryant L. Richardson — primary (person)
- Cyndie Romer — primary (person)
- Kendra Johnson — primary (person)
- Krista Griffith — primary (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — primary (person)
- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
- Russell Huxtable — primary (person)
- Sean Matthews — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-06-01** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-06-07** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 7 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-unfavorable`
- **2023-06-13** Amendment HA 1 to HB 182 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2023-06-20** Amendment HA 1 to HB 182 - Defeated By House. Votes: 6 YES 33 NO 2 ABSENT `amendment-failure`
- **2023-06-20** Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 1 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-06-20** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-06-28** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 3 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-07-31** 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/50c4f48e-ea46-4524-965a-508100bde1d4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).