republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/149/sb-54.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO JUVENILE EXPUNGEMENTS."
description: "The continued existence and dissemination of a juvenile criminal record hampers an individual’s ability to become a successful and productive member of society. These criminal histories are a hindrance to employment, education, housing and credit. This act modifies Delaware’s discretionary expungement provisions to allow more children, and adults with only juvenile records, the ability to petition the Court for an expungement. An adult conviction automatically disqualifies someone from seeking an expungement to their juvenile record. These changes would allow the Court to consider an expungement where a person with a juvenile record has demonstrated rehabilitation. These provisions will enable a greater number of deserving youth, and adults with only juvenile records, the ability to move beyond their past and recognizes that most youth mature out of offending behavior. This legislation builds on a bill passed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers during the 148th General Assembly. Senate Bill 198 streamlined the process for an individual to expunge their juvenile record. This proposed expansion removes certain prohibitions that prevent an individual from ever seeking a discretionary expungement, streamlines the scenarios of which a person with a juvenile record is eligible to seek a discretionary expungement, and creates a fair catch-all provision for those seeking an expungement to their juvenile record in cases where they were found delinquent in multiple cases, but had not been adjudicated or convicted of another crime since. This allows for eligible juveniles, and adults with only juvenile records, to seek discretionary expungements, wherein the Court would decide whether or not a person had rehabilitated."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "SB 54"
citation: "Delaware SB 54 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Debra Heffernan", "James Johnson", "Margaret Rose Henry", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-03-30"
last_action: "2017-06-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a1124a37-e9b9-49f4-861e-12ef8d952c60"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25574"
source_hash: "6ac580199d0e2480ea07677c3b4aa708de0e3e5d970140e7de15afc9f13df27a"
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 54 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO JUVENILE EXPUNGEMENTS.

The continued existence and dissemination of a juvenile criminal record hampers an individual’s ability to become a successful and productive member of society. These criminal histories are a hindrance to employment, education, housing and credit. This act modifies Delaware’s discretionary expungement provisions to allow more children, and adults with only juvenile records, the ability to petition the Court for an expungement. An adult conviction automatically disqualifies someone from seeking an expungement to their juvenile record. These changes would allow the Court to consider an expungement where a person with a juvenile record has demonstrated rehabilitation. These provisions will enable a greater number of deserving youth, and adults with only juvenile records, the ability to move beyond their past and recognizes that most youth mature out of offending behavior. This legislation builds on a bill passed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers during the 148th General Assembly. Senate Bill 198 streamlined the process for an individual to expunge their juvenile record. This proposed expansion removes certain prohibitions that prevent an individual from ever seeking a discretionary expungement, streamlines the scenarios of which a person with a juvenile record is eligible to seek a discretionary expungement, and creates a fair catch-all provision for those seeking an expungement to their juvenile record in cases where they were found delinquent in multiple cases, but had not been adjudicated or convicted of another crime since. This allows for eligible juveniles, and adults with only juvenile records, to seek discretionary expungements, wherein the Court would decide whether or not a person had rehabilitated.

## 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=25574&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB54)

## Votes

- SM — **17–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **40–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- James Johnson — primary (person)
- Margaret Rose Henry — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-03-30** Introduced and Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-06** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2017-04-27** Passed By Senate. Votes: 17 YES 4 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-05-02** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-17** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 4 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-06-15** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-06-20** 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/a1124a37-e9b9-49f4-861e-12ef8d952c60`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).