Brief⁽¹⁾

S.B. 119 establishes a special adoption procedure as a part of the Code for Care of Children to deal with situations when a parent voluntarily or conditionally relinquished their parental rights to the Secretary of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services or to other licensed child placement agencies but wants to maintain contact with their child or children.

The purpose of the bill is stated in Section 1(a) to provide stability in the life of a child who must be removed from the home of a parent of parents, in those particular situations in which the child's parent or parents have voluntarily relinquished their parental rights and in which a court approved case plan provides:

• that the child will be or is placed in an identified preadoptive home; and



• that continued contact with the relinquishing parent or parents is in the best interests of the child.

When a child's parent or parents have voluntarily and conditionally consented to an adoption or have voluntarily and conditionally relinquished their parental rights to the Secretary of Social and Rehabilitation Services or to any licensed child placement agency, the court shall enter an order granting custody of the child to the proposed adoptive parents, subject to the following:

• the court shall, on the record, inform the relinquishing parent or parents of the consequences of a conditional consent to adoption or a conditional relinquishment, and shall make a finding regarding the voluntariness of the conditional consent to adoption or conditional relinquishment; and



• the relinquishing parent or parents and the proposed adoptive parents, and the child, if over 14 years of age and of sound intellect, have agreed, in either a separate written agreement, signed by all interested parties, or in a court approved case plan, to oral or written communication, or both, between the child and the relinquishing parent or parents, or contact between the child and relatives of the relinquishing parent or parents.

The communication may also include exchange of information or visitation between the relinquishing parent or parents or their relatives, or both, and the adoptive parents, or visitation between the relinquishing parent or parents, their relatives, or both, and the child.

Every written agreement or case plan shall contain a clause stating that the parties agree to the continuing jurisdiction of the court and that any disagreement or litigation regarding the terms of the agreement after the entry of the decree of adoption shall not be grounds for setting aside an adoption decree or for the revocation of the voluntary relinquishment of parental rights or written consent to the adoption after the court has accepted the voluntary relinquishment or consent, or both.

On approval by the court, the terms of the case plan or open adoption agreement shall be incorporated into the decree of adoption.

The court shall not modify an agreed order unless it finds that modification is necessary to serve the best interests of the child, and that:

• the modification is agreed to by the relinquishing parent or parents and the adoptive parents and the child, if the child is over 14 years of age and of sound intellect; or



• exceptional circumstances have arisen since the agreed order was entered that justify modification of the order.

The Senate Committee amendments were clarifying in nature.

Background

The bill was requested by a Douglas County district judge as a tool to deal with exceptional adoption situations.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html.