republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/sb-257.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO A MULTISTATE PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR LICENSURE COMPACT."
description: "This Act is an interstate compact called the Multistate Professional Counselor Licensure Compact, and it facilitates the interstate practice of licensed professional counseling. The Counseling Compact allows a counselor who is licensed in their home state and has not had any encumbrances on their license within the last 2 years to obtain the ability to practice counseling in other states participating in the Compact if the counselor satisfies the requirements, including completion of a criminal background check. A counselor must comply with the rules of any state in which they are practicing. Any state in which the counselor practices has the authority to remove the counselor's ability to practice in their state for a specific period of time, impose fines, and take other actions necessary to protect the health and safety of its citizens. If the counselor's home state license becomes encumbered, the counselor will lose the ability to practice interstate under the Compact until their home state license is no longer encumbered and at least 2 years have passed."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "SB 257"
citation: "Delaware SB 257 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Darius J. Brown", "Kyle Evans Gay", "Sherry Dorsey Walker"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2022-04-06"
last_action: "2022-08-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a5ccbd4a-98bb-46ec-b8c1-7612d0543ca9"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=99324"
source_hash: "54970f52fa74a89415034afcfba1ac6cd9d301edafeaf6f9fd63d7589bae9fee"
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 257 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO A MULTISTATE PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR LICENSURE COMPACT.

This Act is an interstate compact called the Multistate Professional Counselor Licensure Compact, and it facilitates the interstate practice of licensed professional counseling. The Counseling Compact allows a counselor who is licensed in their home state and has not had any encumbrances on their license within the last 2 years to obtain the ability to practice counseling in other states participating in the Compact if the counselor satisfies the requirements, including completion of a criminal background check. A counselor must comply with the rules of any state in which they are practicing. Any state in which the counselor practices has the authority to remove the counselor's ability to practice in their state for a specific period of time, impose fines, and take other actions necessary to protect the health and safety of its citizens. If the counselor's home state license becomes encumbered, the counselor will lose the ability to practice interstate under the Compact until their home state license is no longer encumbered and at least 2 years have passed.

## 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=99324&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB257)

## Votes

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

## Sponsors

- Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
- Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Ernesto B. Lopez — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- John "Jack" Walsh — cosponsor (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
- Marie Pinkney — cosponsor (person)
- Michael F. Smith — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
- Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-04-06** Introduced and Assigned to Legislative Oversight & Sunset Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-04-12** Reported Out of Committee (Legislative Oversight & Sunset) in Senate with 4 Favorable, 1 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-05-03** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2022-05-04** Assigned to Sunset Committee (Policy Analysis & Government Accountability) Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-16** Reported Out of Committee (Sunset Committee (Policy Analysis & Government Accountability)) in House with 3 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-29** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2022-08-04** 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/a5ccbd4a-98bb-46ec-b8c1-7612d0543ca9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).