Kinship Adoption in Pennsylvania; When family is the answer

Kinship Adoption is when a relative – in Pennsylvania a birth relative is defined as a parent, grandparent, stepparent, sibling, uncle or aunt of the child’s birth family, whether the relationship is by blood, marriage or adoption – steps up to take legal and physical responsibility for a child. Although families have been taking care of their own for centuries, federal and state laws have now come to recognize such relationships as well.

For instance, prior to the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, government agencies weren’t even required to identify extended family members of a child placed in their care. Now, state’s child and welfare structures must, by federal law, identify and contact every near relative of a child whose parent can’t or won’t raise the child him or herself. Both the mother’s and father’s relatives are identified.

Further, even if a relative cannot step entirely into the role of parent, they are often sought out for foster care placement (sometimes called kinship care which is separate from kinship adoption), temporary physical custody or other levels of emotional and physical support for the child. Increasingly, state welfare agencies make supplemental programs, such as stipends, food stamps and other assistance, available to relatives in many of these legally defined parental roles.

Like all adoptions in Pennsylvania, the law for kinship adoptions is deliberative, multi-stepped and, frankly, slow in its progress. Yet the process is definitely in favor of kin who step up to adopt. State and federal laws recognize the primacy of the biological connection between a parent and child. For this reason, the birth parents are given multiple avenues and windows of time to give up their child – or change their mind. Court-appointed attorneys may or may not be assigned to determine what is best for the child, depending on the circumstances. Home evaluations, psychological evaluations, medical records, police records – all may come into play in any adoption proceeding.

The obvious advantage of a kinship adoption is the influence on identity development of the young child. It is not uncommon in kinship adoption for the birth mother to have regular contact with the child. Indeed, Pennsylvania (Act 101 of 2010, 23 Pa.C.S. §§ 2731-2742) allows for a voluntary agreement for continuing contact or communication following an adoption between an adoptive parent, a child, a birth parent, and/or a birth relative of the child.

For this reason, it is a very popular avenue for teenage pregnancies when the family structure can support the blended concept of a kinship adoption.

Children caught in crisis involving parents battling drug addiction or violence are also excellent candidates for a kinship adoption. Medical practitioners and law enforcement both recognize the legal status of kindship adoptors, if the process has been properly conducted through the courts resulting in a final Order signed by a judge.

I will enjoy helping you stitch a new family together through kinship, or other forms, of adoption. Call my office at 215-345-5259 to schedule a free first Pennsylvania adoption consult today.

– Elissa C. Goldberg, Esquire