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Home > Adoption > Supporting Birth Parents > For Pregnant Women, Birth Mothers, Fathers, & Relatives > Making the Decision > Legal Considerations
Legal Considerations
Links to adoption attorneys and State laws on issues related to placing a child for adoption.
American Academy of Adoption Attorneys
National membership organization of attorneys with expertise in adoption, including a directory with referrals to adoption attorneys in all 50 States.
Collection of Family Information About Adopted Persons, Birth Parents, and Adoptive Parents
Requirements for collecting information about persons involved in an adoption vary from State to State. Each State has laws that specify the kinds of information that may be collected and shared among the parties. State laws specify the persons or entities authorized to collect information. In most States, information about the child to be adopted and the child?s birth family is compiled by the child-placing agency or the department of social services. In some States, the court may designate another qualified person, such as a social worker or specially trained investigator, to complete the history of the birth family. In ...
Consent to Adoption
Reviews State laws that specify the persons who must consent to a child's adoption, time frames for consent, and guidelines for revocation of consent.
Postadoption Contact Agreements Between Birth and Adoptive Families
Postadoption contact agreements, sometimes referred to as cooperative adoption or open adoption agreements, are arrangements that allow some kind of contact between a child's adoptive family and members of the child's birth family after the child's adoption has been finalized. These arrangements can range from informal, mutual understandings between the birth and adoptive families to written, formal contracts. Agreements for postadoption contact or communication have become more prevalent in recent years, due to several factors: -- There is wider recognition of the rights of birth parents to make choices for their children -- Many adoptions involve older children, such as ...
Court Jurisdiction and Venue for Adoption Petitions
Provides the laws that specify the appropriate State courts, by type and location, for handling adoption petitions.
Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights
Reviews State laws that detail the specific circumstances that must be present when a court terminates the legal parent-child relationship.
Infant Safe Haven Laws
Reviews State laws that provide a vehicle for the safe relinquishment of newborns who might otherwise be abandoned.
Who May Adopt, Be Adopted, or Place a Child for Adoption?
This briefing reviews State laws regarding parties to an adoption. General information dealing with who may adopt, who may be adopted, and who may place a child for adoption is identified. In order for an adoption to take place, a person available to be adopted must be placed in the home of a person or persons eligible to adopt. All States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands have laws that specify which persons are eligible as adopting parents and which persons can be adopted. In addition, all States, the ...
The Rights of Presumed (Putative) Fathers
Discusses the rights of the alleged fathers of children born out-of-wedlock and whether States have registries for such fathers.
State Regulation of Adoption Expenses
Nearly all States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories have enacted statutes that provide some regulation of the fees and expenses that adoptive parents are expected to pay when arranging an adoptive placement. Some of the fees and expenses that are typically addressed in the statutes are placement costs, such as agency fees; legal and attorney expenses for adoptive and birth parents; and some of the expenses of the birth mother during pregnancy. This briefing provides general information on birth parent expenses, agency fees and costs, use of an intermediary, and reporting adoption-related expenses to the court.
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