Delaware Senate Bill 37

---

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 9-4)
Status: Introduced on January 10 2025 - 25% progression
Action: 2025-01-10 - Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate
Pending: Senate Judiciary Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

This Act creates a right to free legal counsel for a relative seeking to adopt a child in the relatives family after parental rights over the child have been terminated and the child is in the custody of the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. Relatives of a child for whom adoption is being sought who are eligible for free legal counsel in adoption proceedings include siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, first cousins, first cousins once removed, great-grandparents, grandaunts or granduncles, half-siblings, stepparents, stepsiblings, stepaunts or stepuncles, or stepgrandparents.

An Act To Amend Title 13 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Free Legal Counsel For Relatives Of Certain Children In Adoption Proceedings.

Sen. David Wilson [R]	Rep. Valerie Jones Giltner [R]	Sen. Eric Buckson [R]	Sen. Gerald Hocker [R]
Sen. Kyra Hoffner [D]	Sen. David Lawson [R]	Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos [D]	Sen. Bryant Richardson [R]
Rep. Ronald Gray [R]	Rep. Kendra Johnson [D]	Rep. Stell Parker Selby [D]	Rep. Bryan Shupe [R]
Rep. Michael Smith [R]

Date	Chamber	Action
2025-01-10		Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate

Type	Source
Summary	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=141753
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=141753&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB37