Stepparent adoption is the process of adopting a spouse’s child. If your husband has a child, for example, you can adopt her and become the child’s legal parent. In Arkansas, married couples have this opportunity, whether they are same-sex couples or male-female couples. Single people can also adopt in Arkansas. But what if you are not married, but you still want to adopt your partner’s child, as you might if you were the stepparent? Some states allow this type of adoption, called “second parent adoption,” but Arkansas does not.
This can be confusing. One reason for the confusion is that Arkansas law — and laws in other states, too — used to be set up to prevent same-sex couples from adopting children. Those rules are gone, since same-sex couples can now legally marry in all 50 states. Same-sex married couples have the same adoption rights as any other married couple. But second parent adoption was, in some states, an alternative to stepparent adoption which was available to same-sex couples.
What is second parent adoption?
Second parent adoption is the adoption of a child without eliminating the parental rights of an existing parent. This might be a case of an unmarried couple who want to adopt a child together. Often, it’s a partner of a parent who wants something like a stepparent adoption. It could be a sibling of the birth mother who wants to help and share parental responsibility. We could imagine other situations in which someone might want to do this. It is recognized in some states, but not in Arkansas.
In Arkansas, married couples can adopt and single people can adopt, but unmarried people cannot share parental rights.
Alternatives
The best alternative for your needs depends on your specific circumstances. In some cases, guardianship might be the best way to accomplish your goals. In other cases, marriage would allow the outcome you want, or adoption may not be the solution at all.
Heimer Law can answer your questions.
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