Question: Is it possible to adopt a child from another state, provided that all parental rights were terminated on both mother and father’s sides? What extra complications or legalities do families adopting out of state face?
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Please pardon any errors this is an automated transcript.
Dawn Davenport 0:00
Welcome, everyone to weekend wisdom by creating a family. Weekend wisdom is where you get to ask the questions that you want to hear us answer. It usually takes about five to 10 minutes. So let's get started. Today's question is, can you adopt out of state? Here's the question, is it possible to adopt a child from another state provided that all parental rights were terminated for both the mother and the father? What extra complications or legalities to families adopting out of state face? So the answer there, absolutely, you can adopt out of state. But first, in answering this question, we need to separate the different types of adoption. We have domestic infant adoption. And then we have foster care, adoption. And it's possible to adopt a child in another state with both of these types of domestic adoption. So I'll first address the answer to private domestic infant adoption, you will need to comply with what's called the interstate compact on the placement of children or you may hear it called ICPC. The ICPC is not a federal law, but it is a reciprocal state law, which has been enacted in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and maybe some others. As a result, adopting out of state is a bit more complicated, but it's not all the time, what you do is you have to hire an attorney in the state that child is born that is very knowledgeable about both adoption and the ICPC. If you're working with an agency, they're going to suggest an attorney for you most likely, and if not, I strongly suggest that you consult with an attorney that's affiliated with ours a fellow with the Academy of adoption and assisted reproduction attorneys that goes by the name quad A che or he will let you know if you need another attorney in your home state. So it is very possible to do a domestic infant adoption. In fact, it's fairly common. Now for foster care adoption, it is also possible to adopt a child in another state from foster care. But in my experience, these are usually older and harder to place kids. And this is because it's easier and less expensive for the state to place a child locally because they're required to supervise and support this family after placement and before the adoption is finalized. It's also easier if the child needs or wants to maintain relationships with their siblings or extended family for the child to be placed locally, or at least within the state. It would also be possible for a child to maintain their cultural connections if place locally if that's relevant as well. For all these reasons, the folks at foster care prefer to find an adoptive family locally or closer by however, if they can't find a good fit close by, they often extend their reach to other states. And you can find such kids in youth at websites such as adopt us kids.org, and they have a call and number that can help you and also many states. In fact, I think most if not all, have what's usually called a Heart Gallery, that you can check out where they list with pictures usually of children who are legally free to adopt, you'll have to comply with the interstate compact on the placement of children, but the professionals will help you with that. And keep in mind that fostering a child with the hopes of adoption which was sometimes called a foster to adopt program is usually not an option with children living in another state unless the child is a relative. I hope that helps. Before you leave. Let me tell you about the DACA being family courses that we have they are free courses that are available on our website. We have a library of them thanks to the support of the jockey bang Family Foundation. You can check them out at Bitly slash J B F support at Bi T dot L y slash JB F support. Thanks for listening to this week's weekend wisdom. If you liked it, please tell a friend to subscribe wherever you subscribe to The creating a family.org podcast
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