Adjudication; disposition following adjudication; commitment to custody of Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families; effect.
Del. Code tit. 10, § 1009
in effect(a) Where the evidence supports such holding, the Court may declare a child to be dependent, neglected, abused, as those terms are defined by § 902 of Title 16, or delinquent. In declaring a child to be dependent, neglected or abused pursuant to this section, the Court shall give priority to ensuring the well-being and safety of the child.
(b) Following an adjudication by the Court in which it declares a child to be dependent or neglected, the Court may:
(1) Defer proceedings pending further investigation, medical or other examinations, or where the interests of the child will thereby be served;
(2) Allow a child to remain in the child’s own home with or without court supervision;
(3) Grant custody of a child to any person or agency where satisfactory arrangements can be made but, in the event the child is placed in a home of an “adult individual” who fails to meet the definition of a “relative” in § 901 of this title, § 351 [repealed] of Title 31 shall apply;
(4) Refer the child to the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families for protective supervision;
(5) Grant custody of a child to the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families for foster home placement;
(6) Grant the care or custody of a child to any licensed child-placing agency in this State that will accept the child, provided satisfactory arrangements can be made;
(7) Grant the care or custody of a child to any division of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families provided by the State for the care of children;
(8) Grant the care or custody of a child to any private institution within or without the State that cares for children, provided satisfactory arrangements can be made;
(9) Grant the care or custody of a child to any religious child-caring agency or institution, preferably of the child’s religious faith or that of the parents, or either of them, within or without the State provided satisfactory arrangements can be made;
(10) Commit a child with a mental disorder or incapacity, or child with an intellectual disability for observation or treatment to any appropriate institution within the State, or to any institution without the State provided satisfactory arrangements can be made;
(11) Order such other treatment, rehabilitation or care as in the opinion of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families would best serve the needs of the child and society.
(c) Following an adjudication in which the Court declares that a child is delinquent, it may:
(1) Defer proceedings pending further investigation, medical or other examinations, or where the interests of the child will thereby be served, and release the child upon the child’s own recognizance or upon the recognizance of a custodian or near relative, or upon bond with surety, to appear whenever and wherever notified to do so, or where the required bond is not provided, detain the child in a facility of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families;
(2) Allow a child to remain in the child’s own home with or without Court supervision;
(3) Place a child on probation;
(4) Fine a child for a Title 21 offense or order community service hours in lieu of a fine for a Title 21 offense;
(5) Order a child to make monetary restitution in whole or in part as the Court determines for out-of-pocket costs, losses or damages caused by the delinquent act of the child where the amount thereof can be ascertained;
(6) Award a judgment in favor of any municipal corporation, county, town, school district or agency of the State, or any person, partnership, corporation or association, or any religious organization whether incorporated or not, and against the parents or guardians of the delinquent child for the same or greater amount ordered against the delinquent child but not to exceed $5,000, provided that the Court finds by a preponderance of the evidence presented that:
a. The parents or guardians knew of the child’s delinquent nature; and
b. The parents or guardians failed to take reasonable measures to control the child;
(7) Require that any restitution ordered against the delinquent child precede the liability of the parents or guardians for the monetary damages caused by the child’s delinquent act;
(8) Require, in the absence of objections by the victim of the delinquent act of the child, that any restitution ordered against the delinquent child may be discharged in an appropriate community service arrangement with the understanding that failure to complete the community service work in good faith shall result in the reversion of this obligation to the monetary basis originally ordered by the Court;
(9) Award custody of a child to the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families;
(10) Commit a child with a mental disorder or incapacity, or child with an intellectual disability for observation or treatment to any appropriate institution within the State, or to any institution without the State provided satisfactory arrangements can be made;
(11) Grant the care or custody of a child to any private institution within or without the State that cares for children, provided satisfactory arrangements can be made;
(12) Order the Motor Vehicle Division of the Department of Transportation to:
a. Revoke or suspend the driving privileges or operator’s license possessed by the child;
b. Postpone the child’s eligibility to obtain driving privileges or an operator’s license if the child does not possess such privilege or license; or
c. Enter immediately all traffic, alcohol and/or drug adjudications of any minor on a driving record created by the Division of Motor Vehicles notwithstanding the minor’s driver’s license status, age and/or eligibility for a driver’s license
in any case for a period not less than 3 months nor more than 4 years;
(13) Grant custody of a person who is charged with an act of delinquency prior to reaching the age of 18 years but becomes 18 years of age prior to disposition of the charge, to the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families;
(14) Order the child to be placed under house arrest under the same requirements set forth in § 4332 and subchapter IX of Chapter 43 of Title 11;
(15) Order such other treatment, rehabilitation or care as in the opinion of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families would best serve the needs of the child and society.
(16) [Repealed.]
(17) When the Court sentences a child to participate in counseling, mental health treatment or to a Division of Prevention and Behavioral Health Services consultation or assessment as required, the Court shall be authorized, in addition to any other disposition authorized by this section, to order such child’s parents, guardian or custodian to participate in counseling as determined by the Court or as recommended by the Division of Prevention and Behavioral Health Services. Such counseling shall be designed to assist in deterring future delinquent or unruly actions or other conduct or conditions which would be harmful to the child or society. If the child is court-ordered into a detention facility or residential treatment facility, the Court may order the parents, guardian or custodian to participate in any treatment or counseling program recommended by the facility;
(18) Order any and all registrations or relief therefrom as required under § 4123 of Title 11 where the juvenile has been adjudicated delinquent of an offense that would otherwise render the juvenile a sex offender under § 4121(a)(4) of Title 11;
(19) Notwithstanding any provision of law or court rule to the contrary, and except for any assessment imposed pursuant to Chapter 90 of Title 11, waive or suspend payment of any fine, cost or penalty assessment, including those otherwise deemed mandatory or not subject to waiver or suspension, as part of the sentence imposed on a delinquent child.
The authority given the Court by paragraphs (c)(5), (6), (7) and (8) of this section shall be in addition to any other existing statutory or common law remedy.
(d) For the purposes of this section, the phrase “provided satisfactory arrangements can be made” shall mean that the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families has approved payment for the placement of a child based upon a contract between an agency or institution and the Department or that such a placement can provide a child with the necessary and/or appropriate treatment and/or rehabilitation in the judgment of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families.
(e) [Repealed.]
(f) Following adjudication or election by the juvenile in lieu of trial under § 4177B of Title 21, the Court must order the Motor Vehicle Division of the Department of Transportation after an adjudication of delinquency in violation of § 4177 of Title 21, or election by the juvenile in lieu of trial under § 4177B of Title 21 to:
(1) Revoke or suspend the driving privileges or operator’s license possessed by such child until that child reaches the age when legally allowed to consume intoxicating liquor. This revocation or suspension shall not be subject to waiver except after a minimum period of 6 months from the date of the license is received by the Motor Vehicle Division, and then only if the child successfully completes a course of instruction similar to that required by § 4177B of Title 21 and has demonstrated a critical need for the return of restricted driving privileges.
(2) A critical need shall include loss of a meaningful employment opportunity, or loss of a school opportunity, or any other urgent need of the child or the child’s immediate family the continuation of which is critical to the best interests of the child but only if and for so long as no other member of the immediate family is realistically capable of satisfying such urgent need.
(3) The Division of Motor Vehicles shall promulgate such rules and regulations as are necessary to verify the existence of a critical need, to permit the return of only so much of the privileges as are necessary to reasonably satisfy such critical need.
(4) [Repealed.]
(5) The Department, upon receiving a record of conviction of any person upon the charge of operating a motor vehicle in violation of the conditions imposed upon said conditional/restricted license during the period of such conditional/restricted license, shall forthwith direct such person to surrender said conditional/restricted license to the Department until the age when legally allowed to consume intoxicating liquor.
(g) A child who is adjudicated delinquent on charges which would constitute a violation of § 2701 of Title 21 if the child were charged as an adult shall be prohibited from receiving a temporary instruction permit or an operator’s license until the later of the child’s 17th birthday or 1 year from the date of adjudication.
(h) No adjudication upon the status of a child shall be deemed a conviction nor shall it be deemed to imply that a child is a criminal except as provided in § 1010 of this title, any other provision of this Code, any court rule or rule of procedure or otherwise as determined by any court to be warranted in the interest of justice.
(i) Neither the adjudication nor any evidence given in any case shall be admissible against such child in any future civil or criminal proceeding in any court except for the purpose of a presentence investigation ordered by this or any other court, or as provided for by any other provision of this Code, any court rule or rule of procedure or otherwise as determined by any court to be warranted in the interest of justice.
(j) No dependent or neglected child shall be placed in a secure or nonsecure detention or correctional facility unless charged with or found to have committed a delinquent act. Except for youth placed, detained, or sentenced pursuant to § 2103A [repealed] or § 4204A of Title 11 and except for youth otherwise properly proceeded against as adults in Superior Court, no child shall be placed in an adult detention or adult correctional facility.
(1)-(5) [Repealed.]
(k) (1) Subject to the provisions governing amenability pursuant to § 1010 of this title, the Court shall commit a delinquent child 16 years of age or older to the custody of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families if the child who has been adjudicated delinquent by this Court of 1 or more offenses which were committed after the child’s sixteenth birthday, which would constitute either possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony or robbery first degree (where such offense involves the display of what appears to be a deadly weapon or involves the representation by word or conduct that the person was in possession or control of a deadly weapon or involves the infliction of serious physical injury upon any person who was not a participant in the crime) were the child charged as an adult under the laws of this State. Upon adjudication, such child is declared a child in need of mandated institutional treatment, and this Court shall commit the child so designated to the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families for a minimum sentence of 6 months of Level V incarceration or institutional confinement for a first offense, and 1 year of Level V incarceration or institutional confinement for a second and each subsequent offense, which shall not be subject to suspension.
(2) A child committed to the custody of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families pursuant to this subsection shall not be released from institutional confinement on pass, on extended leave or to aftercare during the first 6 months of said commitment unless the Director of Youth Rehabilitation Services, in the Director’s discretion, determines that it is in the best interest of the child’s treatment to participate in programs which may require the child to leave the institution; thereafter, a child committed to the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families pursuant to this subsection shall not be released from institutional confinement on pass, on extended leave or to aftercare, unless the Judge of the Family Court who originally sentenced the child or a Judge of the Family Court designated by the Chief Judge, upon a petition filed by the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, the child, the parent or parents or guardian of said child, or by the Court’s own initiative, with notice to the Attorney General, determines by a preponderance of the evidence presented at a hearing that the child has progressed in a course of mandated institutional treatment that release would serve both the welfare of the public and the interest of the child or be in the best interest of the child’s treatment to participate in programs which may require the child to leave the institution as determined by the Director of Youth Rehabilitation Services;
(3) Whenever a child appears before the Court on charges subject to the minimum commitment provisions of this subsection or § 1448 of Title 11, said child and the parent, guardian or custodian of said child who is present shall be specifically advised of the operation of this subsection;
(4) Nothing provided herein shall be construed as prohibiting the Court, upon petition and recommendation of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, from securing for any child otherwise subject to the minimum commitment provisions of this subsection or § 1448 of Title 11, such care and treatment as it deems necessary for diagnosed mental disorders or incapacities, or intellectual disabilities, provided that the provisions for such treatment shall not deter the Court from imposing such minimum term of commitment as is applicable.
Source: DE Code (Official Site)URL: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title10/c009/sc03/index.htmlFetched: 10/4/2026