From time to time, situations arise when grandparents might seek to adopt their grandchildren and be their legal guardians and caretakers.
Though this process might be difficult if not impossible in many situations, grandparent adoption lawyers do find that there are other times where legal adoption by grandparents can be beneficial, especially if the grandparents are already acting as guardians for various reasons.
To legally adopt their grandchildren, these are the steps that grandparents must make with the help of lawyers experienced in this type of adoption service.
- Termination of Parental Rights - The first and most critical part of grandparent adoption in Texas is having the parental rights of the legal parents terminated. This can be done voluntarily by parents who are in agreement to allowing grandparents to legally adopt their child to have custody and be their legal guardian via the signing of an Affidavit of Relinquishment. When parents are not in agreement, grandparents will need the help of a grandparent adoption lawyer if they still wish to pursue this adoption for whatever reason.
- Undergo Home Study - A home study, performed by a licensed home study agency, is required to assess the home where the child will be raised and to assess whether it is a positive environment and that the grandparents would be suitable adopters for the child. This assessment is required even if the child has already been living with the grandparents for some time.
- Obtain Consent from the Child - In circumstances that involve children 12 years of age or older, the Texas family court also requires the child to consent to adoption by their grandparents. This will be taken into consideration to determine the final outcome of the adoption request.
- Court Adoption Hearing - With all of the above completed, grandparent adoption services must be completed with a court hearing to hear the request for adoption and make a final decision on the matter. In some cases, if the home study was completed beforehand, parental termination and adoption completion can occur during the same hearing.
The process of grandparent adoption in Texas is a fairly simple one in many cases, as long as the legal parents are willing to terminate their parental rights and entrust their own parents with them.
When parents do not wish to terminate their parental rights, grandparent adoption may only be pursuable with a case that strongly supports it as being in the child’s best interest.
In either case, the easiest way to achieve this type of adoption is with the guidance of an experienced grandparent adoption lawyer who can help.