Family and Child Welfare

Family and Child Welfare 3 (3+0)

Lesson 25 : Court Actions in Relation to Adoption

Conditions to adoption

• The consent of the natural parents to the adoption or a judicial termination of parental rights so that the child’s legally free from adoption.
• To avoid problems in the matter of required consents the Children's Bureau advocates pro­cedures for two groups of adoptive petitioners.
• In adoptions by close relatives consent to a child's adoption should he' required from the biological parent(s) or the guardian of person if there is no parent.
• If the child's mother is a minor, then her parents or court-appointed guardian of person should be expected to con­cur in her consent.
• In all other adoptions that is, all non-relative adoptions a hearing and a decree of termination of parental rights should precede court action for adoption.
• Frequently a state statute specifies that when children to be adopted are of a certain age, per­haps ten, twelve or fourteen, their consent must also be given to the adoption.
• Children even younger than this age should have the op­portunity to express their wishes and experi­ence a sense of participation in the final steps to adoption.
• Placement of the child in a proposed adoptive home by a social welfare agency except in adop­tions by close relatives. Although the proportion of non-relative adoptions which have been ar­ranged independently of a licensed child-plac­ing agency has decreased, private placements still cause concern. State legislation to control the exploitation of children which takes place in "black-market adoptions"-those arranged for profit by an otherwise uninterested party­ is a sign of progress. But even where statutes have outlawed placement for profit, a "gray market" often operates through provisions which allow a mother to place her child directly with adoptive parents, thus leaving the door open for unscrupulous or misguided third par­ties to cooperate with or influence a mother to place her child for adoption.
• A period of time for the child to live within the proposed adoptive home under the guidance of a social welfare agency before the adoption is fi­nalized. In some states the required period of residence is 6 months; in others, 12. Waiver provisions give flexibility so that the court can shorten the time if doing so is in the best inter­ests of the child.
• Issuance of new birth certificates following adoption decrees. This is usually accomplished by requiring the court to forward a report on the adoption to the registrar of vital statistics in the state where the child was born.
• Authority of the court to take various actions in relation to children found in unsuitable pro­posed adoptive homes. For the protection of the child, the court must be empowered to remove a child from the home of an adoptive petitioner if doing so is in the child's best interests. In such instances the court should vest legal custo­dy in an authorized agency, fix responsibility for the child's support, or certify the case to an appropriate court for any further action need­ed.
• Confidentiality of records. The files of the court on an adoption proceeding should be kept separate and withheld from public inspec­tion. Persons and agencies having a legitimate interest in the case should be able to have ac­cess to them by special court order. The adoptive hearing should be informal, and only those persons should attend whom the court recog­nizes as having some direct interest in the adop­tion.

If the court's decision is to approve the adop­tion, entry of its decree should endow the child and the adopting parents with all the legal rights and obligations that exist between a child and his or her biological parents.