Expanding your family by adopting a child is more rewarding than anyone can describe. However, the process to reach that point in Michigan requires time and legal knowledge.
Adoption Under Michigan Law Explained
Michigan’s Adoption Code is a set of laws that governs infant, direct placement, and agency adoptions. The state also has administrative regulations covering the conduct of home studies and the operation of adoption agencies.
Here’s a closer look at some of the important concepts to take from these laws and regulations.
Defining Essential Terms
It helps to first understand the key terms you may hear during the adoption process. An adoption establishes a parent-child relationship with the following characteristics:
- Permanent
- Court-ordered
- Legally recognized
At the end of the process, the adoptive parent is the child’s parent, for all purposes. They have all the rights of biological parents with respect to other people and the government, as well as all the legal responsibilities owed to the child. For example, the child can inherit from the adoptive parent, and the adoptive parent is obligated to financially support the child.
The adoptee is the child who is being adopted. An attorney or a child-placing agency can act as the adoption facilitator. The term “child-placing agency” is the state’s name for adoption agencies.
When the laws refer to the “court,” they mean the family division of the County Circuit Court, also called the “family court.” Likewise, when the laws refer to the Department or DHS, they mean the Michigan Department of Human Services. Your adoption will be handled by the DHS and the court assigned to your case.
Finally, you might run across the terms “consent” and “release.” Although these terms sound similar, they refer to two different documents. A consent is signed by the biological parents to voluntarily surrender their parental rights so that the child can be placed with a specific parent.
A release is also voluntarily signed by the biological parents. However, a release is used to surrender the parental rights to allow the child to be placed by the DHS or a child-placing agency.
Who Can Adopt?
The applicant for an adoption can be single or married. However, when a married person applies to adopt, the application must include both spouses.
The state allows adoption by any of the following:
- Relatives
- Foster parents
- A step-parent
- Strangers
The applicant must be at least 18 years old. You’ll need to submit a medical history and have a recent physical examination when applying. Applicants must also allow the state to fingerprint them and perform a criminal background check. The background check will look for any criminal convictions other than minor traffic citations.
Applicants will need to submit three references from non-relatives and participate in a family assessment, including a home visit. During the assessment, the Department will evaluate the following:
- The applicant’s reasons for adopting
- The applicant’s family history, emotional stability, and parental compatibility
- Health statuses of the applicant and any other family members
- Strengths and weaknesses of the applicant
- The applicant’s parenting ability, including their disciplinary techniques
- The education, job history, and financial status of the applicant
- The status of any children already in the home, including their special needs
- Any history of domestic violence, drug or alcohol use, or child neglect or abuse
- The family members’ attitudes toward adoption and their plans to discuss adoption with the adoptee
- The family’s ability to give the adoptee love, guidance, and affection
- The family’s ability to foster the adoptee’s religion, race, and culture
- Characteristics of the adoptee that the family seeks, including age and sex
There is no single factor that will determine whether the Department approves or denies the adoption application. Instead, it will balance the factors from all the information gathered to determine whether the adoption is in the child’s best interests.
The “best interests” test used by the Department and the court overlaps with the initial assessment. This test includes a consideration of these factors:
- The emotional ties between the applicants and the adoptee
- The capacity to raise and educate the adoptee while fostering their culture, religion, and racial identity
- The ability to meet the child’s needs, including food, clothing, and education
- The time the adoptee lived in a stable environment, and whether to maintain it
- The applicant’s permanence as a family unit
- The applicant’s moral fitness
- The applicant’s mental and physical health
- The adoptee’s home, school, and community
- The adoptee’s preference
- The applicant’s ability to adopt the adoptee’s siblings, if any
The court can also consider any other relevant factor in assessing the child’s best interests.
Who Can Be Adopted?
Anyone can be adopted, including an adult. However, adoption requires that any existing parental rights end before the court issues its order. Thus, a child becomes eligible for adoption when their current parents, typically the biological parents, either have their rights terminated by a court or voluntarily surrender their parental rights.
Voluntary relinquishment is what occurs when a parent puts their child up for adoption. A court can also involuntarily terminate a parent’s rights. This often happens in cases of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
In many cases, the child will be in foster care. Foster care is often a temporary placement for children who will eventually return to their parents. Sometimes, though, the foster child cannot be reunited with their family. In these cases, the parental rights may have already been terminated or surrendered.
Other times, the child will be with their parent, relative, or guardian. In these situations, the first step in the process may be to seek a release or termination of parental rights to pave the way for the adoption.
Common Adoption Processes
If you’re looking to adopt in Michigan, your situation may suit one of these common adoption processes:
Direct Placement
In this scenario, the biological parent chooses the adoptive parent before releasing their rights. This situation often arises when a child is placed for adoption before birth, but it can also happen with older children when the parent is unable to care for the child.
The biological parent signs a consent document agreeing to the adoption in favor of the selected parent. This consent does not finalize the adoption, and the biological parent retains their rights until a court formalizes the adoption.
Specifically, a court must still review and approve the adoption. A consent form can shorten the process, though, by showing that the biological parents consent to relinquish their rights to the new parent voluntarily.
Agency Adoption
A parent can sign a release document that relinquishes their parental rights to a child-placing agency. The agency then selects an adoptive parent.
In many cases, the agency will have many applicants to choose from. This type of adoption can take longer than a direct placement since the agency must match the prospective parents with the right child.
Ward Adoption
Ward adoption occurs when the court terminates the parents’ rights. In other words, the parents have not voluntarily relinquished their rights to anyone, so there is no adoptive parent or child-placing agency with a consent or release document.
Instead, the child will usually be placed with relatives or foster families by the Department. The Department and the child-placing agencies that it contracts with can seek applicants to adopt the child. In these cases, the Department focuses on adoption by relatives or foster parents whom the child already knows.
These adoptions can proceed quickly once they are initiated because the parental rights have already been terminated. There may be a delay in finding the right relative or foster parent who can adopt the child.
Foreign and Out-of-State Adoption
Michigan also facilitates valid adoptions performed in other states or countries according to the local jurisdiction’s laws. The state recognizes consent or release forms that are valid in the state or country where they were executed, even if they do not meet Michigan’s requirements.
Additionally, the state will accept an adoption finalized in other states or countries, allowing the adoptive parents to obtain a Michigan birth certificate when they return with their newly adopted child.
Other Adoptions
Other common adoption scenarios include relative and step-parent adoptions. Relative adoptions often happen when a biological parent places their child directly with the child’s relative, such as a grandparent or aunt and uncle, by signing a consent document.
It can also occur when a child becomes a ward of the state after a court terminates the biological parents’ rights. The state then seeks a relative to adopt the child to minimize the child’s time in the foster system and ensure the child is raised by someone familiar. These adoptions can often go relatively smoothly as long as the relative can pass the assessment.
Step-parent adoptions happen when a biological parent marries, and the new spouse adopts the stepchild. This process is not available for all step-parents. The other biological parent must either consent or have their parental rights terminated before the child can be adopted by the step-parent.
Common Steps and Timelines in the Michigan Adoption Process
The specific adoption process depends on the adoption type. For example, a parent who relinquishes their rights in a direct placement adoption can consent to the temporary placement of the child until the adoption is formalized. This temporary placement allows the child to live with the prospective adoptive parents while the legal process plays out.
In most other cases, adoptions share a few common steps.
Find an Adoptee
Adoptions must identify a specific adoptee. In other words, you cannot start an adoption until a parent signs a consent for direct placement, or you have your application for an agency or ward adoption filed and approved.
The time for this step will vary in each case. For example, the step might occur in less than a day in a direct placement adoption, but it could take several weeks or months in an agency or ward adoption.
Petition the Court
The adoptive parent prepares an adoption petition and files it in court. The petition is a legal document that provides the background for the adoption and formally requests that the court issue an order changing the adoptee’s parentage.
In a direct placement adoption, the petition usually includes the consent from the parent. In a ward or agency adoption, a consent from the child-placing agency, the Department, or the court will be included.
Preparing and filing an adoption petition can be handled fairly promptly by an experienced attorney. Once completed, the petitioner’s attorney files the documents in the county where either the adoptee or the prospective parents live.
Pre-Placement Assessment
Michigan law mandates a pre-placement assessment in all direct placement adoptions. The court can also order a pre-placement assessment in other adoption types to protect the child’s interests. Although the law does not require it, you should expect the court to order the assessment even if you are the child’s relative or foster parent.
Prospective adoptive parents can request a pre-placement assessment in agency adoptions before an adoptee is identified. By taking this step early, the parents can accelerate the timeline for adoption after finding an adoptee.
Usually, the child-placing agency or the Department performs this assessment. The assessment typically involves several home visits with the prospective parents. The investigator will also gather criminal background reports. This investigative process usually takes several weeks.
After gathering and reviewing the information, the investigator prepares a “report of investigation.” This process can take several more weeks, depending on the information recovered. In total, you can expect the assessment process to take several months. In complex cases, the investigator could take up to a year to file a report with the court.
Placement and Final Order
Once the report is complete, the court will review it and hold a hearing. The judge will terminate the biological parents’ rights and order the child placed with the adoptive parents if the adoption serves the child’s best interests. However, the adoption is still not final.
The court must appoint someone from the child-placing agency or the Department to monitor the adoption for at least six months. If the placement goes well, the court issues the final order of adoption, completing the process.
Contact a Trusted Adoption Attorney in Michigan
The timeline for an adoption is highly dependent on the circumstances of your case. If you’re considering adoption, the experienced team at Gucciardo Family Law can walk you through your options and help you navigate every step of the process. Contact us to discuss your situation today.
