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    The "traditional" adoption, wherein the birth parents place their child with a licensed agency who has the skills and experience to locate a suitable home for the child, and to provide support to the birth and adoptive parents during the emotionally challenging periods that precede and follow the child's birth and adoption.  The agency may have children placed with them due to more tragic circumstances, such as the death of the child's parents, or the judicial termination of parental rights due to child abuse or neglect.

     Parents who find themselves unable to properly raise their child may place a child for adoption with a person or couple of their own choosing.  This is called a "private placement" adoption.  The actual process of private placements is strictly controlled by statute to insure the safety of the child and the integrity of the adoption process. No placement is effective before the child is 10 days old, although it is possible to informally place the child with the prospective adoptive parents at anytime (including at birth).  The initial stages of the process take place in the local Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.  A home study conducted by a private agency or the Department of Social Services to insure the appropriateness of the placement, and compliance with the statutory requirements and prohibitions.

    It frequently happens, especially in this "modern" and mobile world of ours, that a non-custodial parent becomes estranged from his or her child both geographically and emotionally.  Reasons for this estrangement run from distance and travel hardship caused by the relocation of a parent, to mere disinterest.  Oftentimes the custodial parent has remarried and the new spouse is appropriately filling the shoes of the absent parent such that the absent parent is willing to surrender parental rights to the new spouse.  This transfer of parental rights may be formally accomplished through a procedure known as a step-parent adoption. The effect of a step parent adoption is to totally sever the legal relationship between the parent and the child.  Therefore, it is imperative that the parent surrendering parental rights speak with a lawyer to fully understand the consequences of the act.

    Procedurally, a step-parent adoption is quite simple if both birth parents and the adoptive parents all consent, or if  a birth parent has died and the remarried birth parent and new spouse both consent.  No home studies are required.  See our Fee Schedule for the fees and anticipated costs of a step-parent adoption.

    We typically think that an adoption will involve only a minor child.  Indeed, the vast majority of adoptions involve adults adopting minors (step-children, private placements, agency placements, etc.).  But many situations develop where it is appropriate that a person over the age of 18 be adopted.  A perfect example is when, let's say, mother and step-father have raised the child for perhaps as long as 18 years of the child's life  Let's say they even changed his name to that of the step-father, but they never concluded an adoption.  In reviewing retirement or death benefits or other entitlements, the step-father determines that the child would not be a beneficiary because he is not "his child" according to law, and therefore not covered by the terms of the policy.  These folks should run, not walk, to an attorney to set matters right. Other types and examples of adult adoptions are set out in the statute which is linked in the blue text under this subsection title.