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Things You Should Know:
- In most states, a stepparent adoption is much easier to complete than a nonrelative adoption. Waiting periods, home studies and even the adoption hearing are sometimes dispensed with in a stepparent adoption.
- In all stepparent adoptions, ex-spouse or natural parents will need to consent to the adoption because they is the other legally recognized parent of the child.
- You may dispense with the natural parent's consent if you can prove that the absent parent has not exercised any parental rights and convince the court that it's appropriate to legally terminate that parent-child relationship.
- Most states' laws allow parental rights to be terminated when a parent has willfully failed to support the child or has abandoned the child for a period of time, usually a year.
- In re A.M.R., 527 N.W.2d 565 Where the court has previously granted visitation rights to a maternal
grandparent under Minn. Stat. ??7.022, subd. 2 (Supp. 1993), those rights do not automatically terminate upon adoption of the children by their stepmother and termination of their biological mother's parental rights.
- Tailor v. Becker, 708 A.2d 626 The stepparent custody statute effectively gives a stepparent the same status as a natural parent, for purposes of deciding custody, if (i) the child is residing with the stepparent and a natural custodial parent, when (ii) the natural custodial parent dies or becomes disabled. |  |
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