republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/sb-255.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 13 AND 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE VOLUNTARY ADMISSION PROCEDURE.	When a youth who is experiencing foster care and living in an out-of-home placement has a need for inpatient psychiatric treatment, there can be a delay in gaining voluntary admission to a facility due to the Division of Family Services needing to obtain the youth’s parent or legal guardian’s consent for treatment. This can lead to a youth waiting in an emergency department bed or other inappropriate setting while waiting for the proper consent to be signed. In some cases, when a youth’s parent or legal guardian cannot be located, the youth must be involuntarily committed in order to obtain inpatient treatment, even when the youth is going willingly.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	151	SB 255	Delaware SB 255 (151)	bill		enacted	Marie Pinkney Melissa Minor-Brown	1	7	2	2022-03-31	2022-09-21	openstates	ocd-bill/c3469f3c-ebf1-417a-b00d-333684cae8f5	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=89288	2039ae7898892c41cc577e1900736a59cf4e0eeb779ab8b058be5224bc31555e	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware SB 255 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 13 AND 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE VOLUNTARY ADMISSION PROCEDURE.

When a youth who is experiencing foster care and living in an out-of-home placement has a need for inpatient psychiatric treatment, there can be a delay in gaining voluntary admission to a facility due to the Division of Family Services needing to obtain the youth’s parent or legal guardian’s consent for treatment. This can lead to a youth waiting in an emergency department bed or other inappropriate setting while waiting for the proper consent to be signed. In some cases, when a youth’s parent or legal guardian cannot be located, the youth must be involuntarily committed in order to obtain inpatient treatment, even when the youth is going willingly.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• 3/5 — 41–0 (pass) · lower
• 2/3 — 21–0 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Marie Pinkney — primary (person)
• Melissa Minor-Brown — primary (person)
• Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
• David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
• Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
• Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
• Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
• Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
• Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
• Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
• Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
• Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
• Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2022-03-31 Introduced and Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2022-04-13 Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 3 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2022-04-14 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2022-04-28 Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2022-05-11 Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 2 Favorable, 6 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2022-06-28 Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES passage
• 2022-09-21 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/c3469f3c-ebf1-417a-b00d-333684cae8f5. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).