BILL ANALYSIS �
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 �Interstate 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 �relieves] 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
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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
AB 687
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334