In a private agency adoption, persons
must apply to the agency and may have to meet certain
criteria to be accepted as prospective adoptive parents.
These may be age, religion, or other criteria, depending
on the particular agency.
The agency will investigate the prospective
adoptive parents' background, including their employment,
criminal records checks, marital stability (if a married
couple), own family background, and other items to
determine if the applicants are able and ready to
provide a permanent home to a child who was not born
to them.
Children are usually placed with private
agencies for adoption by their birth parents, who
surrender the children voluntarily because they know
that they are not able to provide a good home for
the children. Sometimes, a court may have terminated
a birth parent's parental rights, and the child is
committed to the agency by the court.
When a child is available for adoption
through a private agency, the agency will assess the
needs of the child and make a match with appropriate
prospective adoptive parents. As much information
as is available about the child's sociological and
medical background will be provided to the prospective
adoptive parents. Many agencies ask birth parents
about their preferences for an adoptive placement
- such as whether the family has other children already,
what is their religion, etc. The agency will honor
these requests unless doing so would unduly delay
the adoptive placement of the child.
After the child is placed with the
prospective adoptive parents, an agency representative
will visit the family and will provide help and advice
in meeting the child's needs and in answering questions
that friends and relatives may ask. The agency may
remove the child from the family, if the child does
not thrive and the placement is not appropriate.
After the adoptive family has been
supervised by the agency for an appropriate period
of time, and the agency is satisfied the child is
adjusting in the home, then the adoption placement
must be legally finalized. The prospective adoptive
parents must have their own attorney do this to properly
comply with legal requirements. After the court finalizes
the adoption, the legal parent- child relationship
is established with the adoptive parents, and the
child gains all the rights of a biological child in
that family. A new birth certificate is then issued
showing the adoptive parents as the child's parents.
Generally, in private agency adoptions,
there is complete confidentiality. That is, the adoptive
parents do not know the birth parents' names and vice
versa. However, as much general information as possible
is provided to all the parties about the others.
Not all children available for adoption
through private agencies are problem- free infants.
There may be a long wait for such a child. However,
generally a child is not placed with a family by an
agency until after the birth parents' have legally
surrendered the child or their parental rights have
been terminated by a court. Thus, there is generally
little uncertainty about the placement, and little
or no concern that a birth parent will try to revoke
the adoption placement.
Stepparent adoptions are quite common.
Often, a husband or wife may want to legally establish
the parent-child relationship that already exists
between him or her and his or her spouse's child.
This is possible only if the child's absent biological
parent is dead, consents to the adoption, or a court
determines that the biological parent's consent is
not required. When a stepparent adoption is finalized,
this creates legal parental rights in the stepparent,
and terminates the parental rights of the absent biological
parents. Thus, it is very important to either obtain
a legally valid written consent from the absent biological
parent, if living, or to obtain a court order that
the absent parent's consent is not required - after
giving proper notice to the absent parent. Usually,
the mere fact that an absent parent has not paid child
support, or has not visited with the child, will not
be enough reason for a court to excuse that parent's
consent to the adoption.
In stepparent adoptions, as in all
adoptions, if the child is 12 years old or older,
the child must also consent to the adoption, unless
the court excuses the consent.
If a stepparent has adopted stepchildren,
and then gets divorced from the children's biological
parent, there may be issues of child custody and child
support between the parties, just as if the adopted
children had been born to the stepparent. That is,
a stepparent may be on equal footing to obtain custody
of or to pay child support for adopted stepchildren.
As in all adoptions, a single parent
may adopt, if that person meets a particular agency's
criteria. A homosexual person may not adopt in Florida.
Michael R. Barnes
practices law in Key West, Florida. His comments are
provided as a pro bono community service and are not
offered as legal advice for a particular set of circumstances.
The law is continually changing. If you are concerned
that you may need a lawyer, you are encouraged to
contact one about your legal rights and responsibilities
and follow his or her advice for your individual situation.
