---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CONCURRENT JURISDICTION."
description: "This Act extends Family Court's jurisdiction under Chapter 50, Title 16, over a youth who has a mental condition and requires services or treatment but is not amenable to or compliant with such services."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 39"
citation: "Delaware HB 39 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Catherine Cloutier", "Harris B. McDowell", "Sean M. Lynn"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 11
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-01-18"
last_action: "2017-09-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a10f8875-df1b-48e3-b161-0e8731a6af73"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25393"
source_hash: "9f6bc7820829011428f7a8b65a66192532016fb2b9ed52b2cd548647c161bba7"
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 39 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CONCURRENT JURISDICTION.

This Act extends Family Court's jurisdiction under Chapter 50, Title 16, over a youth who has a mental condition and requires services or treatment but is not amenable to or compliant with such services.

## 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=25393&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB39)

## Votes

- SM — **18–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **40–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Catherine Cloutier — primary (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — primary (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
- Margaret Rose Henry — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-18** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-03-15** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 1 Favorable, 8 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-03-16** Amendment HA 1 to HB 39 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-03-28** Amendment HA 2 to HB 39 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-03-28** Amendment HA 1 to HB 39 - Stricken in House
- **2017-03-28** Amendment HA 2 to HB 39 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2017-03-28** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-03-28** Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-26** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2017-05-03** Passed By Senate. Votes: 18 YES 3 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-09-08** 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/a10f8875-df1b-48e3-b161-0e8731a6af73`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).