Adopting a child in Arkansas is an important legal process, and one of the most important parts of the process is to make sure that the child is available for adoption — that all the involved parties have given their consent to the adoption. That may seem simple, but sometimes things are not what they seem at first glance. Consent laws in Arkansas adoption are designed to protect the rights of all the people involved and to avoid problems in the future.
The child’s consent
The child must agree to be adopted if he or she is 12 years old or older. The court can set this requirement aside if they feel that the adoption is in the child’s best interests, but this is the general rule.
If the person being adopted is married, the spouse must also agree.
This must be done in the presence of the court.
The birth mother’s consent
This is required unless the mother has lost her parental rights, abandoned the child, or had no contact or support for at least one year. She must consent after the child’s birth, in a document before the judge, a notary public, or a licensed representative. She should have a lawyer, paid for by the adoptive parents but not the same lawyer who is working with the adoptive parents. She should also have an interpreter if her native language is not English. She can sign without the legal representation or the interpreter, but she must sign a statement saying that she understood her right to these helpers and rejected them.
If she is a minor, the court will provide a temporary guardian to protect her rights.
All these rules and protections are to make sure the birth mother understands that she is giving up her parental rights and will no longer be the legal mother of the child. Several adoption scandals have included women who did not know or agree that their children were no longer legally theirs.
A mother whose husband is adopting her children in a stepparent adoption must still consent, but she may agree without an interpreter even if English is not her native language.
The birth father
In Arkansas, a married woman’s husband is the legal father of her child, even if someone else is the biological father. If a married woman wants to put her child up for adoption, her husband must consent.
If the mom is unmarried, she must check the Putative Father Registry and give notice to anyone who claims to be the father of the child. If the mom doesn’t agree that the man claiming fatherhood is in fact the father, DNA testing may be required to settle the question. If he objects to the adoption, he can sue for custody of the child. If he is not able to show that he is a fit parent, or if he wants to stop the adoption but not to take on parental responsibilities for the child, the court can end his parental rights and approve the adoption.
Any custodian
If someone else has legal custody of a child, that person must also consent to the adoption. An example might be a case in which a child’s grandparent has guardianship when the child’s mother can’t provide a safe and stable home. If the birth mother at a later date decides she wants to put her child up for adoption, she would have to have the consent of the grandparents.
This is only true when another person has legal custody. Normally, grandparents do not need to consent to an adoption. The same is true of a sister who has taken the child into her home and cared for him since he was a baby, or a friend who provided a home for a child in a casual adoption. Unless they have legal custody, people in these positions have no legal rights in the adoption.