# Delaware SB 250: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10, TITLE 13, AND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE UNIFORM PARENTAGE ACT. Delaware SB 250, AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10, TITLE 13, AND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE UNIFORM PARENTAGE ACT., is a 153rd General Assembly (2024–2026) Senate bill sponsored by Marie Pinkney (Democratic); status signed, last action 2026-06-09 (Signed by Governor); PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-10-12). - Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-SB250-153 - As of: 2026-10-12 - Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts. ## Facts - Bill: Delaware SB 250 - State: Delaware - Session: 153rd General Assembly (2024–2026) - Title: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10, TITLE 13, AND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE UNIFORM PARENTAGE ACT. - Status: signed - Chamber: Senate - Introduced: 2026-03-05 - Last action: 2026-06-09, Signed by Governor - Sponsor: Marie Pinkney (Democratic) - Cosponsors: 11 - Touches household money: yes - Roll calls: 2 (39 yes, 10 no in all) - Economic provisions PRIA read: 41 ## Summary No summary available. ## Bill overview: provisions PRIA read - Equal parentage rights for all families: benefit, high. Children have equal rights and legal protections concerning who their parents are. These rights do not depend on a parent's marital status, age, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. The law also treats children and parents equally across birth circumstances, including surrogacy and assis… - Divorce orders can establish legal parenthood: benefit, medium. A final divorce, dissolution, annulment, or marriage-invalidity order can establish a child's legal parents. The court must have authority over the case under the law's jurisdiction rules. The order must identify the child as a child of the marriage or otherwise name both spouses as parents. An ord… - Donor-conceived people gain donor information access: benefit, medium. For gametes collected on or after the law's effective date, Delaware-licensed banks and fertility clinics must collect donor identities and medical histories. They must also keep contact information for facilities supplying gametes. At age 18, a donor-conceived person can request identifying donor… - Longtime caregivers can become legal parents: benefit, medium. A living caregiver can seek legal parent status while the child is alive and under 18, using a verified filing with specific facts. The caregiver must show significant time living with the child, steady care, lasting unpaid parental duties, and treating the child as their own. They must also show a… - Delaware courts can enforce carrier escrow agreements: benefit, low. Escrow agents holding money under qualifying gestational carrier arrangements accept Delaware court authority for disputes about enforcing their escrow agreements. This applies when the carrier agreement follows Delaware law. It also applies when the escrow agreement is with a Delaware resident who… - Families can start parentage cases earlier: benefit, low. Parentage cases can generally begin before birth, although completion usually waits until birth; genetic-carrier proceedings have a separate exception. For assisted reproduction, courts can issue orders before birth, but enforcement waits until the child is born. Petitions must include intended par… - Families gain surrogacy and specimen privacy: benefit, low. Carrier-agreement court records are closed to public inspection unless a court orders access. Parties, the child, their lawyers, and Delaware's health department may inspect them. Outsiders need a court finding of urgent circumstances and may have to pay copying costs. Intentionally releasing anoth… - Parentage notices and name changes for children: benefit, low. When an acknowledgment of parentage is withdrawn through rescission, any linked denial of parentage becomes invalid. The Office of Vital Statistics must notify the person who gave birth and the person who signed the denial. Missing notice does not undo the rescission. In a parentage case, a court c… - Fertility clinics must keep donor records: cost, low. Delaware-licensed gamete banks and fertility clinics must keep donor identifying information, medical histories, and screening and testing records. They must also follow applicable reporting requirements. Facilities receiving reproductive cells from another facility must keep the sender's name, add… - More ways families establish legal parents: mixed, high. Beginning 180 days after enactment, the law recognizes parentage through birth, adoption, acknowledgments, court rulings, presumptions, and assisted reproduction. Marriage-related presumptions include births within 300 days after marriage ends; another covers living with and openly parenting a chil… - Parentage records carry rights and deadlines: mixed, high. A properly filed acknowledgment gives parental rights and duties like a court ruling; a matching valid denial removes them from the presumed parent. Signers have a 60-day rescission window after the record takes effect. Afterward, a signer can challenge it only for fraud, duress, or a material fact… - Birth records follow legal parentage decisions: mixed, medium. For institutional births to unmarried people, staff must explain acknowledgment rights and duties, offer notarization, and give signers copies. Forms must reach Vital Statistics within 10 days of signing, and that office must send copies to Child Support Services within 7 days of receipt; minors' a… - Carrier births establish intended parents' duties: mixed, medium. Under a validated genetic-carrier agreement, intended parents hold parental rights and duties unless the carrier withdraws consent on time. The carrier and their spouse or former spouse are not parents under that agreement; a gestational carrier is also not a parent. Withdrawal or conception withou… - Courts resolve disputed surrogacy parentage: mixed, medium. All parties can seek approval of an unvalidated genetic carrier agreement after assisted reproduction, but before birth. If the carrier withdraws consent within 72 hours after birth, the law's general parentage rules apply. Without withdrawal, the carrier is not automatically a parent; courts weigh… - Ending parental rights requires family disclosures: mixed, medium. Consent-based termination cases require consent from parents and applicable presumed parents; alleged genetic or presumed parents can submit signed denials instead. The birth parent can consent only after birth, while alleged genetic and presumed parents can consent before or afterward. Courts can… - Families gain defined parentage court pathways: mixed, medium. Children, eligible birth parents, legal parents, parentage claimants, child-support agencies, and eligible adoption agencies can bring parentage cases. Authorized representatives can act for eligible people who are deceased, incapacitated, or minors; statutory exceptions still apply. Cases involvin… - Fathers must register for adoption notices: mixed, medium. A man seeking adoption or parental-rights termination notices about his genetic child must register before birth or within 30 days afterward. Registration is unnecessary if Delaware law already establishes his parent-child relationship. It is also unnecessary if he starts a parentage case before a… - Genetic carriers can withdraw after birth: mixed, medium. An intended parent can end a genetic-carrier agreement before transfer, including a later transfer after an earlier unsuccessful attempt. A genetic carrier can withdraw consent by delivering witnessed or attested notice to each intended parent within 72 hours after birth. Ending the agreement gener… - Genetic carriers face safeguards and approval: mixed, medium. Genetic-carrier agreements cover carriers using their own egg, unlike gestational carriers, who make no genetic contribution. A genetic carrier must be at least 21, have given birth before, complete medical and mental-health evaluations, and carry qualifying insurance through pregnancy and 8 weeks… - Health and legal safeguards for surrogacy: mixed, medium. A gestational carrier must be at least 21, have given birth before, and complete medical and mental-health evaluations. The carrier and intended parents must have separate Delaware-licensed lawyers, and intended parents must complete a mental-health evaluation. Before embryo transfer, the carrier n… - Parentage cases bring support and costs: mixed, medium. A tribunal can order temporary child support after clear and convincing evidence shows someone is an intended parent. It must also find the temporary order appropriate; the law sets no support amount. Courts can assess filing, lawyer, genetic-testing, travel, and other reasonable costs in parentage… - Parentage rules address divorce and death: mixed, medium. These assisted-reproduction rules do not cover conception through intercourse or carrier agreements governed by the separate carrier rules. If marriage ends before gamete or embryo transfer, a former spouse is a parent only with recorded, unwithdrawn consent made afterward. Death after transfer doe… - Parenthood and consent in assisted reproduction: mixed, medium. A parent under the assisted-reproduction rules, or the person who gave birth, can ask a court to decide parentage. Courts must recognize qualifying parents and use the competing-claims rules when another person also qualifies. Someone who previously consented can withdraw before the transfer that r… - Parents face new acknowledgment signing rules: mixed, medium. The person who gave birth can sign a parentage acknowledgment with an alleged genetic, presumed, or assisted-reproduction parent. Both signatures must be notarized, and the record must address existing parent claims and disclose available genetic-test results. An acknowledgment is void if either si… - Parents gain access to termination petitions: mixed, medium. A parent or presumed parent can petition to terminate parental rights; filing alone does not end anyone's rights. Unintentional-abandonment criteria cover 12 consecutive months within the 18 months before filing. The updated criteria refer to the other parent's pregnancy and efforts to establish pa… - Parents get notice but rulings bind: mixed, medium. A parentage petitioner must notify existing parents and people whose parentage is at issue; those notified can join the case. The birth parent receives notice unless already ruled not to be a parent. Missing notice does not invalidate the judgment or block the separate parentage proceeding identifi… - Presumed parents gain stronger family stability: mixed, medium. Cases about presumed parenthood can begin before adulthood; afterward, only the child can start one. Once a child turns two, the presumption can be overcome only through two exceptions. The presumed parent must be genetically unrelated and never have lived with or held out the child, or multiple pr… - Relative adoptions balance consent and privacy: mixed, medium. Stepparent and blood-relative adoptions require consent from the birth parent and any alleged genetic or presumed parent. An alleged genetic or presumed parent can sign a disclaimer instead of admitting parentage. A court can waive the specified consent only after a hearing, review of the social re… - Surrogacy contracts set custody and payments: mixed, medium. An enforceable gestational carrier agreement must be written and signed before embryo transfer, with separate Delaware lawyers and signed rights-and-duty statements. Two adults without an interest in the agreement must witness it; required signatures include the carrier's spouse and both intended-p… - Surrogacy disputes preserve support and autonomy: mixed, medium. An intended parent's breach of a gestational carrier agreement does not end child support duties. Courts decide unresolved rights and duties after noncompliance, unless the law supplies another rule. Legal remedies remain available, but courts cannot force a gestational carrier to become pregnant.… - Temporary support and parenting orders for families: mixed, medium. During a parentage case, courts can order temporary child support consistent with other Delaware law. A payer can be a presumed parent, someone seeking parent status, or an identified genetic parent. Other eligible payers include someone who refused genetic testing, someone proved a parent by clear… - Adoption filings require detailed family records: mixed, low. Stepparent and blood-relative petitions must identify birth parents when parental rights have not already been legally terminated. They must state the birthing parent's marital status at conception and birth. If unmarried at either time, or the spouse is not a parent, an affidavit must describe the… - Adoptions require father notices and searches: mixed, low. For children at least one year old, adoption or parental-rights termination applicants must notify every alleged genetic father. This applies even without registry registration, unless his parental rights have already ended. Required registry search certificates must be filed before an adoption or… - Courts expand testing with family safeguards: mixed, low. Courts generally must order testing when a sworn statement shows a reasonable possibility of genetic parentage or non-parentage. Child-support agencies can order it only when no other presumed, acknowledged, or court-established parent exists besides the birth parent. Courts and agencies cannot ord… - Genetic evidence cannot override assisted parenthood: mixed, low. Genetic tests cannot challenge parenthood established under the law's assisted-reproduction or carrier-agreement rules, or establish a donor as a parent. If a lab error defeats an intended genetic link to either intended parent, intended parents remain the legal parents by default. This rule applie… - Parentage challenges face two-year filing limits: mixed, low. Eligible non-signers other than the child must challenge an acknowledgment or denial within two years of the acknowledgment's effective date. Eligible people who were neither parties nor notified must challenge a parentage judgment within two years of its effective date. In both cases, courts can a… - Parentage records stay private with exceptions: mixed, low. Paternity registry records remain confidential, with access limited to authorized courts, agencies, birth parents, case participants, and other state registries. Intentional disclosure to unauthorized recipients is a class A misdemeanor handled exclusively by Superior Court. Delaware's child-suppor… - Parents face genetic testing payment rules: mixed, low. Initial testing costs are advanced by a child-support agency providing services, the requester, or someone designated by agreement or court order. An agency that pays may seek repayment from the genetic parent whose parent-child relationship is established. A person contesting initial results can r… - Reliable genetic tests face clear thresholds: mixed, low. Tests must use expert-supported methods and labs accredited by AABB or a federally designated accreditor. Labs must select population data based on the tested person's ethnic or racial group. Objections seeking recalculation must reach court within 30 days after receipt; unavailable data require re… - Surrogacy agreement dates determine applicable rules: mixed, low. The law takes effect 180 days after enactment. Prior gestational carrier rules apply to agreements signed after July 3, 2013, and before that effective date. Specified pre-birth parentage proceedings are available for those agreements. New gestational carrier rules apply to agreements signed or arr… - Surrogacy parenthood after marriage or death: mixed, low. Later marriage changes generally do not alter signed carrier agreements unless the agreement says otherwise. A later spouse does not become a parent through the agreement or need to consent as the carrier's spouse. Intended parents generally remain parents after their marriage ends, subject to the… ## Sponsors and cosponsors - Sponsor: Marie Pinkney (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: Alonna Berry (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Mara Gorman (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Krista Griffith (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Kerri Evelyn Harris (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Russell Huxtable (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: Eric Morrison (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: DeShanna U Neal (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Sophie Phillips (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Cyndie Romer (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Ray Seigfried (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: David P. Sokola (Democratic), Senate ## Roll call votes | Date | Chamber | Motion | Result | Yes | No | Other | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 2026-05-05 | House | Passed (SM required) | pass | 26 | 10 | | | 2026-04-15 | Senate | Passed (SM required) | pass | 13 | 0 | | ## Actions (7) - 2026-06-09: Signed by Governor (Governor) - 2026-05-05: Passed By House. Votes: 26 YES 10 NO 2 NOT VOTING 3 ABSENT (House) - 2026-04-22: Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 3 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits (House) - 2026-04-16: Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House (House) - 2026-04-15: Passed By Senate. Votes: 13 YES 6 NOT VOTING 2 ABSENT (Senate) - 2026-03-25: Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 6 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits (Senate) - 2026-03-05: Introduced and Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate (Senate) ## Bill text - Current, 2026-03-05: [HTML](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=142910&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2) ## Related bills - HS 1 for HB 449: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DIETITIAN/NUTRITIONIST LICENSURE ACT. (passed house) - HB 357: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10 AND 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DUTY TO SUPPORT POOR PERSONS. (signed) - SB 279: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL-BASED OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS. (vetoed) - HB 393: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 26 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROTECTIONS FOR PUBLIC UTILITY CONSUMERS. (vetoed) - SB 231: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKERS. (vetoed) - HB 356: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PFAS IN FIREFIGHTING FOAM AND EQUIPMENT. (failed) ## Sources - [Current (HTML)](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=142910&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2) ## Related - [HS 1 for HB 449: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DIETITIAN/NUTRITI…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-HS1FORHB449-153) - [HB 357: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10 AND 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DUTY TO S…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-HB357-153) - [SB 279: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL-BASED OCCUPATI…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-SB279-153) - [HB 393: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 26 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROTECTIONS FOR PUBLI…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-HB393-153) - [SB 231: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKERS.](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-SB231-153) - [HB 356: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PFAS IN FIREFIGHTING…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-HB356-153) - [Delaware bills](https://policyrisk.com/states/delaware/bills) - [Delaware state hub](https://policyrisk.com/states/delaware) - [All state legislation](https://policyrisk.com/state-bills) Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/DE-SB250-153 (as of 2026-10-12).