Adoption plans are a very important part of your adoption journey. Once the adoption is final, the plan for future contact continues to be important, since it lays out the expectations for any ongoing connection between the birth parents and the child. In Arkansas law, this plan is called the “post-adoption contact agreement.” Arkansas law is very clear about this: it is a voluntary agreement and not enforceable by law.
Is the agreement a legal document?
Yes, it is. It must be signed by all parties and the signatures must be notarized. The notary public must make certain that everyone understood and agreed to the terms.
The terms include details about the kind of contact the birth parents will have with the child, whether that might be phone calls, letters, Face Time visits, or in-person contact. It must also have clear statements of some limitations:
- The agreement doesn’t prevent any of the parents from moving to another state.
- The adoptive parents can terminate the agreement if it is in the best interests of the child to do so.
- The agreement should include grounds for terminating the agreement if they can be foreseen.
- The adoptive parents have the final say on what is in the best interests of the child.
That is, the document makes a legal agreement between the birth parents and the adoptive parents, but there are limits on that agreement. It’s voluntary, so the birth parent can’t be forced to show up for agreed contact and the adoptive parens can’t be forced to allow continued contact if it seems to them to be harmful to the child.
Why isn’t the agreement enforceable by law?
Since the plan is a voluntary agreement and not a contract, it is part off the legal definition that it can be changed over time.
A similar legal situation is the Compact of Free Association between the United States and the Marshall Islands. This may sound like something very different from an adoption, but stick with me for a minute and it will become clear. The Compact of Free Association is a treaty with lots of detailed rules, but one of the rules is that either country can end the arrangement at any time. Right noe, people from the Marshall Islands can live and work in the United States, but the government of the Marshall Islands can end that at any time.
Just so, the post-adoption contract agreement is a legal agreement that includes the rule that it can be ended (terminated) if it is in the best interests of the child. It also includes the rule that the adoptive parents — the legal parents of the child — get to decide what is in the best interests of the child. Those things are legally part of the agreement. So the specific details of the plan, such as the type of visit allowed, cannot be legally enforceable.
Can the adoption be set aside if the agreement is not honored?
Arkansas law specifically says, “an adoption cannot be set aside due to the failure of an adoptive parent, a birth parent, or the minor to follow the terms of this agreement or a later modification to this agreement.” So the answer to that question is a definite “No.”
Nor can a birth mom be forced to keep to the schedule of visits or to stay in contact with the child. The child can refuse to continue visits, too. None of these things can end the adoption.
How long does the agreement last?
The post-adoption contract agreement lasts until the child’s 18th birthday, or until the adoptive parents choose to terminate that agreement. The birth parent can request changes in the agreement or can stop showing up for meetings and thereby end the agreement, but cannot legally end the agreement.
As always, legal issues are complicated. It’s important to have a qualified adoption lawyer with you through the adoption journey. Heimer Law is an adoption law firm, and can answer your questions about the process.
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