BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 687
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          Date of Hearing:   April 12, 2011

                           ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
                                  Mike Feuer, Chair
                 AB 687 (Fletcher) - As Introduced: February 17, 2011

                              As Proposed to be Amended

           SUBJECT  :  ADOPTION

           KEY ISSUE  :  SHOULD VARIOUS CHANGES BE MADE TO STREAMLINE THE 
          PROCESS FOR ADOPTIVE FAMILIES? 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  As currently in print this bill is keyed fiscal.

                                      SYNOPSIS
          
          This is the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers' (ACAL) 
          annual adoption bill.  According to the author, this bill is 
          necessary to resolve technical issues, such as making various 
          code sections consistent, and other more substantive issues that 
          streamline adoption procedures.  Over the years, procedures to 
          identify and locate presumed or alleged fathers and then seek 
          their consent to, or waiver of notice about, termination of 
          parental rights prior to adoption have been amended in attempt 
          to streamline the process and make it more efficient.  This bill 
          seeks to make those changes consistent throughout the code and 
          to help ensure that fathers are identified and notified.  This 
          bill also provides a time limit for issuing a new birth 
          certificate in the case of an adoption and provides for an 
          expedited process, if necessary.  Further, this bill increases 
          venue options for adult adoptions.  Finally, this bill requires 
          the court to consider the child's best interests in an action to 
          set aside an adoption.  The bill is supported by the Family Law 
          Section of the State Bar.  There is no opposition to these 
          changes.   

           SUMMARY  :  Makes changes to adoption processes and adoptive 
          placement considerations.  Specifically,  this bill  :

          1)In an effort to identify the natural father in an adoption 
            proceeding, allows the licensed adoption agency doing the 
            adoption investigation to make an attempt to identify the 
            natural father.  Requires that the inquiry include the names 
            and whereabouts of every man presumed or alleged to be the 








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            father of the child.  Requires the agency that completes the 
            inquiry to file a written report of its findings with the 
            court.

          2)Allows private adoption agencies to perform the Interstate 
            Compact on the Placement of Children administration services 
            for any interstate placement of nondependent children.

          3)Allows a court to enter an adoption order nunc pro tunc (back 
            dated) where it will serve public policy and the best 
            interests of the adoptee.

          4)Allows a consent to a step-parent adoption to be signed in 
            front of an authorized representative of an licensed adoption 
            agency.  Requires that the consent be filed when signed or 
            simultaneously with the adoption request.

          5)Requires the court, in any action to set aside an order of 
            adoption, to consider the child's best interests.  Clarifies 
            that this does not apply to adoptions of children with 
            developmental disabilities or mental illness identified prior 
            to the adoption.

          6)Provides venue options for filing a petition for adult 
            adoption, including the county where the proposed adult 
            adoptee resides or was born or the county where the adoption 
            agency that placed the adoptee when he or she was a minor is 
            located.

          7)Requires the State Registrar to issue a new birth certificate 
            within 120 days of receipt from the court of a court report of 
            adoption or within 90 days of an expedited request.  Provides 
            that the fee for an expedited birth certificate is $150.

          8)Provides that the policy of the state includes that voluntary 
            and safe alternatives to foster care be encouraged and 
            supported.

          9)Provides that a foster care license or certificate is not 
            required for placement of a nondependent child who is 
            relinquished for adoption to a licensed adoption agency, 
            provided the child is placed with prospective adoptive parents 
            who have an approved adoption home study, as specified.

          10)   Makes other technical changes.








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           EXISTING LAW  : 

          1)Requires, in a proceeding to terminate parental rights as part 
            of an adoption proceeding, that efforts be made to identify 
            the natural father and report that information to the court.  
            (Family Code Section 7663.  All further statutory references 
            are to the Family Code.) 

          2)Allows the court to dispense with a hearing to terminate 
            parental rights and may instead issue an ex parte order 
            terminating those rights in the following situations:

             a)   The identity or whereabouts of the father are unknown.
             b)   The alleged father has validly executed a waiver of the 
               right to notice, or a waiver or denial of paternity.
             c)   The alleged father has been served with written notice 
               of his alleged paternity and the proposed adoption, and has 
               failed to bring an action to determine the existence of a 
               parent-child relationship, as required.  (Section 7667.)

          3)Specifies how consent shall be obtained for a step-parent 
            adoption.  (Section 9003.)

          4)Provides an action to set aside an adoption order on any 
            ground, except fraud, must be brought within one year.  An 
            action based on fraud must be brought with three years.  
            (Section 9213.)

          5)Allows for a petition for adoption of an adult to be filed 
            only in the county in which either the prospective adoptive 
            parent or the proposed adoptee resides.  (Section 9321.)

          6)Requires the State Registrar to issue a new birth certificate 
            after an adoption.  (Health & Safety Code Section 102635.)

          7)States the intent of the Legislature that foster care should 
            be temporary and that children have a right to normal home 
            life free from abuse.  (Welfare & Institutions Code Section 
            396.)

           COMMENTS  :  This is the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers' 
          annual adoption bill.  According to the author, this bill is 
          necessary to resolve technical issues and other more substantive 
          issues in order to streamline adoption procedures.  Writes the 








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          author:

               This bill is latest in a series of annual efforts to clean 
               up the adoption sections of the Family Code.  For the past 
               10 years, ACAL has sponsored this annual legislation all of 
               which have been signed into law.  Drafts are circulated to 
               all the relevant stakeholders as well as to the committee 
               counsels prior to introduction.  If amendments cannot be 
               worked out, then the provision is dropped from the bill.

               This year, the bill focuses on improving the 
               comprehensibility of Section 7660 et seq relating to the 
               procedures for terminating the parental rights of 
               non-presumed or alleged fathers for the purposes of 
               adoptions.  Revisions over the years necessitate 
               reconciling the provisions within this section of the law 
               as well as with other sections of the Family Code.

               Budget strains motivates the change . . . to allow private 
               adoption agencies to perform ÝInterstate Compact on the 
               Placement of Children] services for non-dependent children 
               in order to free up CDSS staff time to actually administer 
               the adoptions under this section.  Currently private 
               adoption agencies are licensed to do this work for agency 
               adoptions.  The change in Section 6 Ýrelieves] more family 
               budgets by permitting a foster child to agree to an 
               adoption on or after their 18th birthday.  This will permit 
               families to take advantage of health care benefits as well 
               as provide more permanency as child adoptions.  This 
               authority is permissive. . . .

               The rest of the sections seek to streamline procedures 
               related to adoptions in order to save the state or county 
               resources by permitting adoption agencies to do more 
               functions or to permit adoptive parents to pay higher fees 
               to expedite the receipt of a new birth certificate. 

           This bill makes the process easier to find presumed or alleged 
          fathers and seek their consent to adoption  .  Over the years, 
          procedures to identify and locate presumed or alleged fathers 
          and then seek their consent to, or waiver of notice about, 
          termination of parental rights prior to adoption have been 
          amended in various ways in attempt to streamline the process and 
          make it more effective.  This bill makes several changes to 
          clarify the process and make the various code sections 








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          consistent.

          In particular, this bill requires the agency that completes an 
          investigation of the name and whereabouts of every possible 
          presumed or alleged father to file that report with the court.  
          The bill also allows private adoption agencies to perform 
          step-parent adoption investigations.  

           Provides a time limit for issuing a new birth certificate in the 
          case of an adoption and provides for an expedited process, if 
          necessary  .  According to the author, after an adoption is 
          completed, adoptive families are now waiting 14 to 24 months for 
          their child's new birth certificate.  This bill requires the 
          State Registrar to issue a new birth certificate within 120 days 
          of the receipt of the court report of adoption.  In cases where 
          four months is too long to wait, this bill provides an expedited 
          process, for a fee of $150, with issuance of the new birth 
          certificate required within 90 days of receipt of the court 
          adoption report.

           This bill increases venue options for adult adoptions  .  Adult 
          adoptions are often used to help provide children who have 
          emancipated out of the foster care system with permanent 
          families.  However, once children have emancipated out of foster 
          care, the adoption petition cannot be filed in the county where 
          the child was in foster care.  Current law allows for a petition 
          for adoption of an adult to be filed only in the county in which 
          either the prospective adoptive parent or the proposed adoptee 
          resides.  This bill would expand the venue list to include where 
          the adult adoptee resides or was born or the county where the 
          adoption agency that placed the adoptee when he or she was a 
          minor is located.

           This bill allows a court to issue an adoption order nunc pro 
          tunc if necessary for the best interests of the child .  Adoption 
          of minors and adults differ in key aspects.  In particular, an 
          adult adoption is a legal contract that can be changed, and it 
          does not offer the same permanency as adoption of a minor does.  
          Permanency is particularly important for foster children who 
          emancipate out of foster care without that support and 
          stability.  Health insurance rules may also prevent parents from 
          providing health insurance to a child who is adopted as an 
          adult, even if the child is 18 at adoption.  

          This bill allows a court to enter an adoption order nunc pro 








                                                                  AB 687
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          tunc, allowing the court to back date the order, where it will 
          serve public policy and the best interests of the child.  This 
          allows the courts the ability to do justice, particularly for 
          former foster children who emancipate out of the system without 
          permanency.

           In an action to set aside an adoption, this bill requires the 
          court to consider the child's best interests  .  Existing law 
          provides, except in specified cases, that an action to set aside 
          an adoption must be brought within one year for any reason 
          except fraud (for which the set aside period is three years).  
          The statute is silent as to what the court must consider when 
          determining whether to grant the petition.  This bill requires 
          the court to consider the adopted child's best interests when 
          determining whether to set aside the adoption.  This will ensure 
          that the court considers the child's interests, in addition to 
          the interests of the adults involved.  

           Proposed Amendments  :  The author proposes three amendments two 
          technical and one more substantive.  The more substantive 
          amendment limits when a consent to a step-parent adoption must 
          be filed in court.  The current draft of the bill allows the 
          consent to be filed when signed or simultaneously with the 
          adoption request, or as soon there after as reasonably possible. 
           In order to ensure that the consent is filed timely, the author 
          rightly proposes to require that the consent be filed either 
          when signed or simultaneously with the adoption request.  

          The proposed amendments are:

          On page 6, line 11, after the second "adoption" insert: service 
          provider

          On page 6, lines 29-30, delete "or as soon thereafter as 
          reasonable possible"

          On page 6, line 37, delete "county" and insert: country
                  
           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support  

          Academy of California Adoption Lawyers (sponsor)
          Family Law Section of the State Bar









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           Opposition 
           
          None on file
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :  Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334