Children

Adoption

To adopt a child, the child must be legally free to be adopted. This means that the parents' parental rights must be terminated first. To sever a parent's rights, a Petition to Terminate Parental Rights must be filed in juvenile court. And if there is no court order placing the child in the care of a person who is not the biological parent, a dependency petition may need to be filed prior to the Petition to Terminate Parental Rights. In other words, in some cases a Dependency Petition must be filed first, then a Severace Petition needs to be filed, and finally a Petition to Adopt is filed. All of these petitions are filed in juvenile court.

In the dependency petition, you must allege that there is no parent or legal guardian who is willing or able or capable to care for the child. Once the child has been found to be dependent as to both parents, and the child is placed in the care of the juvenile court for approximately 9 months, a Petition to Terminate Parental Rights can be filed. (Note: the child may be in the care of the juvenile court for longer than 9 months.) Parental rights are terminated based upon a court finding by clear and convincing evidence that this is in the child's best interest. Then the child is free to be adopted.

The Petition to Adopt starts the adoption process in juvenile court. A social study needs to be completed on both the prospective adoptive parents and the child. The prospective parents must be appropriate to adopt this child, and the child must be appropriate for these prospective adoptive parents. Once this social student has been completed and the court finds it is in the child's best interest to be adopted by the prospective parents, the adoption occurs.