republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-136.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PARENTS AND CHILDREN."
description: "The Bill sets forth 8 factors a court must consider in determining a proposed relocation of a child for a period of 60 days or more in litigation involving custody or visitation. These factors include: (1) the nature, quality, extent, and duration of the child’s relationship with the individual proposing to relocate and with the non-relocating individuals, siblings and other significant persons in the child’s life; (2) the age, developmental stage, needs of the child, and the likely impact of the relocation on the child, taking into account any special needs of the child; (3) the feasibility of preserving the relationship between the non-relocating individual and the child; (4) the child’s preference; (5) any established patterns of the relocating individual to thwart or promote the relationship between the child and non-relocating individual; (6) whether the relocation will enhance the general quality of life of the child and relocating individual; (7) the reasons for requesting and opposing the relocation; and (8) any other factor affecting the best interests of the child."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 136"
citation: "Delaware HB 136 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Kimberly Williams", "Sean M. Lynn", "Trey Paradee", "William Bush"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 12
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2021-03-25"
last_action: "2021-09-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/16ffee63-6197-4475-ad19-00e2daa61dc6"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48511"
source_hash: "4449d1cedd43bbb4b46dba6fd0f3ef00f09989dda7eab3c03c24dc9f16bf56db"
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 136 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

The Bill sets forth 8 factors a court must consider in determining a proposed relocation of a child for a period of 60 days or more in litigation involving custody or visitation. These factors include: (1) the nature, quality, extent, and duration of the child’s relationship with the individual proposing to relocate and with the non-relocating individuals, siblings and other significant persons in the child’s life; (2) the age, developmental stage, needs of the child, and the likely impact of the relocation on the child, taking into account any special needs of the child; (3) the feasibility of preserving the relationship between the non-relocating individual and the child; (4) the child’s preference; (5) any established patterns of the relocating individual to thwart or promote the relationship between the child and non-relocating individual; (6) whether the relocation will enhance the general quality of life of the child and relocating individual; (7) the reasons for requesting and opposing the relocation; and (8) any other factor affecting the best interests of the child.

## 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=48511&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB136)
2. **HA 1 to HB 136** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=68609&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **20–0** (fail) · upper

## Sponsors

- Kimberly Williams — primary (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
- Trey Paradee — primary (person)
- William Bush — primary (person)
- Andria L. Bennett — cosponsor (person)
- Daniel B. Short — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — cosponsor (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Stephen Smyk — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-03-25** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-20** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 3 Favorable, 6 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-22** Amendment HA 1 to HB 136 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2021-05-18** Amendment HA 1 to HB 136 - Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `amendment-passage`
- **2021-05-18** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2021-05-18** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-10** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2021-06-29** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2021-06-29** Reconsidered in Senate
- **2021-06-29** Roll Call Rescinded in Senate
- **2021-06-29** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2021-09-15** 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/16ffee63-6197-4475-ad19-00e2daa61dc6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).