Types of Adoptions: Intrastate, Independent,
Stepparent, and More

In this video, managing partner Carla Hartley discusses various types of adoptions and how they are categorized, including intrastate adoptions, interstate adoptions, and international adoptions, as well as infant adoptions, intermediate age adoptions, and adult adoptions, plus many more.

If you have any questions or would like to speak with an adoption attorney about an intrastate adoption, interstate adoption, or international adoption, contact Hartley Law Group today at (833) 647-2377. 

Transcript:

Hello, my name is Carla Hartley. I’m the managing partner for Hartley Law Group, a multi-state law firm which practices family and probate law in primarily Texas and California. We have attorneys that are licensed in both states and some attorneys that are licensed only in one state or the other.

However, we aim to ensure that we are intimately familiar with the law in every state in which we practice, and we want to make sure we get you the best results you can possibly get under the law and facts of your case.

How Adoptions Are Organized

Today, I’m going to be discussing various types of adoption. You can organize adoption in various ways. Many of them are overlapping. So let’s get started.

Geographically

One of the first ways to organize is geographically. This is basically discussing the location of the child and the adoptive parents. We’re going to discuss intrastate, interstate and international adoption in a later segment.

Age of the Child

Another way to organize is the age of the child. Is the child an infant? Is a child of an intermediate age, which is neither infant nor adult? Is the child consenting—which is not the age of consent for voting, becoming an adult—but is the age at which various states say a child can consent to an adoption. Then there are adult adoptions. Obviously, the child is an adult.

Origin of the Child’s Availability

We also organize by origin of the child’s availability—whether the child is coming from foster care, from a surrender, marriage to one of the child’s parents. These are various ways that the child becomes available for adoption.

Relationship to the Adoptive Parents

Then we organize by relationship of the child to the adoptive parents. Is this an independent adoption, relative or non relative, or stepparent adoption?

Geographic Categorization of Adoptions

All of these factors tend to overlap, as I said before. I’ll discuss this later in more detail.

In this segment, I’m going to be discussing solely the geographic categorization of adoptions in more depth. This regards the location of the child and the adoptive parents.

Intrastate Adoptions

In intrastate adoptions, the child and the adoptive parents—hopefully the biological parents as well—are all in the same state. The law of one state will apply and that makes these things a lot simpler.

Note, no Federal Uniform Adoption Act has been passed, so the processes and protections can vary from state to state. This is something you want to make sure your attorney is aware of. This becomes more relevant in our next segment, interstate adoptions.

Interstate Adoptions

This is where the child, the adoptive parents, and possibly even the biological parents, are in different states. In this circumstance, we often have to comply with laws of various different states.

For instance, some states will have different requirements for a parent to surrender parental rights. Others will have different requirements for termination of parental rights. And depending on where the biological parents are found, we have to comply with various different types of laws.

This also depends on where the child is found. The key here is to make sure you’re avoiding any opportunity for an appeal that could disrupt your child’s life once the child is placed with you. 

International Adoption

The third type is international adoption, which should also involve international re-adoption. This often involves a non-governmental organization here in the States, which is coordinating with an agency in the subject country where the child was born or is found. The child gets adopted first pursuant to the laws of the nation where the child is found.

International Re-Adoption

But although that gives the child parents, who are U.S. citizens, that process does not confer U.S. citizenship on the child. For the child to have U.S. citizenship, the parents must undergo the international re-adoption process, which takes place here in the States. International re-adoption is a lot less expensive than the actual adoption of the internationally located child.

But if you want your adopted child to have no problems with things like getting a driver’s license or enjoying various government benefits, it’s best to handle the re-adoption promptly upon the child’s entry to the States.

Many non-governmental organizations that help with their initial international adoption will help with the stateside re-adoption for a very low additional fee. I strongly recommend that you don’t come to us for that years later, but then you handle it with the NGO at the time of the adoption and pay those couple hundred, sometimes couple thousand, dollars more to handle it at that time.

If we have to go back in and fix it later, it’s going to cost you a lot more money and it can disrupt services that are available to the child.

Age of the Adoptive Child Categorization of Adoptions

In this segment, I’m going to be discussing the categorization of adoptions by the age of the adoptive child.

Infant Adoptions

Let’s start with infant adoptions. The protections for an infant tend to be much higher for infant adoptions throughout the States. The child cannot be interviewed. Courts are going to want to ensure that the person giving up the child for adoption, which is usually mom, does indeed have the authority to do so. That she’s actually the mom.

Often in infant adoptions, the child will go home from the hospital with the adoptive parents right after birth. That is actually most common. However, this does create problems for the biological father who may not even know his child is being given up for adoption.

Doctrine of Prenatal Abandonment

At this point in Texas, in California, where our firm practices, both tend to regard a father’s failure to follow up during pregnancy as a failure to exercise his rights and responsibilities with regard to the unborn child. This doctrine has been named in various states—not necessarily Texas and California—the doctrine of prenatal abandonment.

There are ways to protect your rights, to prevent your child from being given up for adoption. But you cannot wait, dads, until the child is born. The father must take action during pregnancy to step up and show he intends to be a dad.

Intermediate Age Adoptions

The intermediately aged child is going to be interviewed but isn’t at the age of consent. This is going to be a child who’s maybe four years old—I think is one of the earlier interviews where they have the ability to understand what is going on—but they are not at the age of consent, which can vary from state to state. Twelve to fourteen is your most common age of consent for adoption.

Best Interest Analysis

This interview is aimed at the best interest analysis. What is in the best interests of the child? It’s just what it sounds like. Is it in the best interests of the child to be adopted, to have this become a permanent placement. Given the child may or may not know one or both of his or her parents, there’s too many variables in these cases to discuss this in depth. You need to call an attorney who practices in your local courthouse.

Consenting Child Adoptions

Then we have the consenting child. Again, still a child, not at the age of adulthood. This is usually 12 to 14 years of age, as I previously stated. Not only will the child be interviewed, but if over the age of consent for that state, the child must give his consent or her consent to the adoption.

The age of consent, as I said, does vary between states. So if you’re not in Texas or California, check with your local state.

The best interest of the child is still the essential component here. Is it in the best interests of the child to be adopted? And for this to be a permanent placement? Because these consenting children have an idea and understand what is going on, that is why we need their consent, why the court is going to require it.

At this age, a child is—I’m not going to say won’t be—but is extremely unlikely to be adopted against their wishes.

Adult Adoptions

Then we have the adult adoption. Adult adoptions are fairly common, but tend to be a lot less litigated. There is no need for interviews by the state or county investigator because adults have the power to consent and contract.

This is going to be somebody over 18 who wants to be adopted by, sometimes it’s been the person who has actually been raising them for all these years, but couldn’t actually go through with an adoption while they were younger. So they wait till they turn 18 and they say, “Hey, dad, I want you to be my dad. Hey, Mom, I want you to be my mom.” This requires the consent of the adult child and of the adopting adult. 

Legal Origin of the Child’s Availability Categorization of Adoption

Continuing in our discussion of how to categorize different types of adoptions, we can categorize by the legal origin of the child’s availability, or the process—the legal process—through which the child becomes available.

Foster Care

Start with foster care. In many states, this is called dependency. I know in California it’s governed through the Welfare Institutions Code, which doesn’t sound like foster care at all. Texas has a different code section for this, but what we’re talking about here in federal statutes is generally referred to as foster care.

So we don’t deal with children coming out of foster care. We prefer not to. I had a brief stint with this, and I find the cases just absolutely too heartbreaking. In foster care cases, the prospective adoptive parents don’t have enough rights. The biological parents are entitled to a great deal of services. This can drag on for a couple of years. And too many times I’ve seen children have to go back to the biological parents.

The heartbreak in this is not that the biological parents recover and can help their children, but if it has been mental illness or addiction, which is caused the children to be placed with the foster parents in the first place, a lot of times we see these biological parents get well just long enough to get their children back, and then they’ve got them back somewhere between two weeks and three months. The children are back in the foster care system.

So I don’t deal with this as a matter of choice. And I don’t have our firm dealing with it in either state as a matter of choice. I do welcome you to be involved with this. These children do need foster parents. Most of your local churches, a lot of your Catholic charities will be in some way involved with this.

Surrender to an Agency

The next one we have is surrender to an agency. So this is where the child is surrendered to an agency, often to a governmentally scrutinized non-governmental organization. Again, this is something that we don’t deal with, not because this is heartbreaking. The surrender to an agency, where we have a non-governmental organization like Catholic charities as the agency, they generally have their own system put together. They have their own lawyers, they have their relationships with their own qualified social workers. There’s just not a lot of room for us to get involved in that.

And frankly, there are enough children that need adoption that we don’t feel that we need to try to intervene in this. So when you have a private attorney trying to get involved to help you adopt a child from one of these non-governmental agencies, you’re going to pay a lot more money than you would if you just went to somebody they recommend and have been using for years. So, again, we’re not dealing with that.

If you are interested in adopting a child from a non-governmental organization, I invite you to reach out to them and see what they have available. Often there’s a waiting list, but that is one way to get a child that’s a lot less heartbreaking than the foster care system.

Surrender to a Person

Then we have surrender to a person. This is often informal. Often this is going to start with just dropping the kids off with grandma and grandpa for a day or two, or a week or two, and then it becomes a month or two. So that is not necessarily a voluntary surrender, but it is a voluntary surrender. It just takes place slowly over time.

It’s not like walking into an agency and saying, “I can’t take care of this child. Here you go.” This is something that happens over time. This is often involved with relatives, sometimes with a close personal friend. But the surrender to a person, again, is something that happens mostly informally, mostly over time. And what we usually try to do is suggest that, in this circumstance, the person with whom the child is found should pursue some legal means of having custody and control of that child.

Now, sometimes a surrender to a person is a little bit more formal. They’ll do, like, I’ve seen, you know, downloaded guardianship paperwork, temporary guardianship paperwork off the Internet. That’s not legal. It’s good enough to maybe get to the right to enroll the child in school, the right to take the child to the doctors. It gives the doctor some coverage if they’re treating the child. But for the most part, that’s not going to be what you need to pursue the next steps with the child.

Now, of course, the next step, the aim, is adoption.

Guardianship or Conservatorship

So the other legal origin we have often comes out of the surrender to a person, the informal surrender and its guardianship. This is where you apply for guardianship or in Texas, conservatorship of a minor child. California, we call it guardianship. Texas calls it conservatorship.

So the guardianship or conservatorship of a minor child is where you have been granted by the court the rights and responsibilities of a parent with regard to this child. You have the right to make decisions about where the child should live, to see to the care and custody of the child, to ensure the child receives an appropriate education. And you have all of the rights and responsibilities to ensure the child is taken care of with regard to medical, dental, therapeutic issues if it’s needed.

So guardianship is formal, and conservatorship, in this context, is formal. It is granted by a court, not downloaded from the Internet. Although if someone’s giving you a child downloading something from the Internet, take that. That’s proof that can help you, later, get this formal guardianship.

You Married a Parent of the Child

The last way that I want to discuss as an available legal origin of the right to adopt a child is if you have married a parent of the child, essentially you’ve become a stepparent. You’re a stepdad or a stepmom, and you desire to adopt your spouse’s child.

Now, there are a number of precursors that are going to be required for anyone who wants to adopt a child that has been made available by any of these means. But we’re going to be discussing those precursors and what has to happen for you to adopt the child in a different segment.

Right now, this series is simply aimed at giving you a broad overview of the different ways to categorize how children became adoptive. How you find the child, where the child is located, how you categorize the adoption, and they’re all interrelated. I cannot stress that enough.

Relationship of the Child to the Prospective Adoptive Parents Categorizing of Adoption

The next categorization that we can use for adoptions is categorizing by the relationship of the child to the prospective adoptive parents.

Independent

So let’s start with independent. An independent adoption—which will in some respects overlap with relative adoption—an independent adoption implies that there is no close blood relationship and often no blood relationship at all.

Just as often, we see beyond the second degree of consanguinity with the relationship. So, for instance, a relative adoption might be grandma and grandpa. An independent adoption would be grandma’s brother or sister, the great aunt or the great uncle. So the independent adoption will overlap with some degree of relative.

The degree of relationship is what determines whether it is independent or not.

Close Relative Adoption

The next category of relationship is if it’s an actual close relative adoption. So generally, grandma and grandpa, sometimes an aunt and uncle, not a great aunt and uncle, but aunts and uncles. These are relative adoptions.

These are people who’ve been in the child’s life for a very long time. And the child has a relationship with these people, knows them pretty well. And often the biological parent or parents will be part of the decision to do this. Sometimes, though, we’ve had that informal placement and it’s all going to be adversarial. You just don’t know. But the relative adoption proceeds, as we’ve discussed.

Stepparent Adoption

Then we have the stepparent adoption. Again, this overlaps with the legal origin. The stepparent has to be married to the parent of the child in order to be eligible for stepparent adoption. But these adoptions are very common. They’re very rewarding. And what I love about a stepparent adoption is that you have a child who’s got a mom or dad who’s largely absent, doesn’t really want to be or has not effectively been part of their child’s life. That sends a really horrible message to this child.

The step parent who steps in the dad, the stepdad or the stepmom who steps in and says, “Hey, I want you.” That person is telling some child that they’ve got a parent who wants them.  It’s a parent by choice instead of a parent by blood, by default. And in those instances, I find stepparents—well, in every instance, because that’s what a stepparent adoption is—I find the stepparent adoptions tremendously rewarding.

I also find the relative and independent adoptions rewarding. I don’t want to mislead anyone. I think stepparent adoptions have a special place in my heart because it’s a mom or a dad who’s stepped into a distressed child’s life and said, “Hey, I want you.”

Conclusion: Types of Adoptions

That finishes my overview of the various types of ways we can categorize adoptions. Keep in mind all of these crossover. You do not want an inexperienced or brand new adoption attorney. Every adoption has various hoops it has to jump through.

This is just the first set of categories. You don’t just start by saying, “Oh, I’m a relative, I want to adopt.” You don’t just say, “Oh, I found a kid. I want to adopt.” It’s going to go through everything. How you found the kid, where the child is located, the relationship or lack of relationship of the child, the legal origin.

All of this changes the character of the case that you’re going to have to pursue and the criteria you’re going to have to jump through in order to have this child become your child.

Contact Adoption Attorneys at Hartley Law Group

Again, I hope this has been helpful. My name is Carla Hartley, I’m the managing partner for Hartley Law Group, which is a multi-state law firm practicing family and probate law in Texas and California. It’s my sincere hope that if you have found any of this helpful or interesting and need more information, you will take a look at our YouTube page where we have more videos, more information, or our website, or we also have more videos and more information. Thank you.