Step-Parent Adoption in Bucks County Pennsylvania

Adoption is the making of a new family. Maybe that’s why I enjoy handling adoption cases. After decades of helping couples split their families apart through divorce, it gives me great pleasure to splice another family together through adoption.

Step-parent adoption is the legal binding of a newly-formed family in which a parent re-marries and his or her new spouse seeks legal status with their new stepchild.

Pennsylvania adoption law puts the adoption process in the hands of individual counties, but Bucks and surrounding counties are very similar. So, I will focus only on the Bucks County Orphan’s Court procedures.

CLEARANCES OBTAINED. The adopting step-parent must apply for three clearances that show there is no criminal history. The necessary clearances are a Pennsylvania Criminal History from the State Police, a Child Abuse Clearance from the Department of Public Welfare, and a fingerprint clearance from the FBI.

Once the clearances are complete, a step-parent may then petition to adopt.

VOLUNTARY TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS. Obviously, the step-parent’s new spouse (also the child’s natural parent) must voluntarily consent to the adoption. So must the other natural or genetic parent. If the child’s other natural parent is available and willing to terminate his or her parental rights, then adoption is really just several steps of paperwork and Consents. From the adopting parent’s point of view, this is the ideal situation – no waiting, no wondering, just the signing of documents.

INVOLUNTARY TEMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS. Let’s say a child has never known one natural parent, maybe has never met their father or seen their mother since birth, and was raised in a single-parent household. Or, a natural parent was once involved but has drifted away and is out of contact for at least six months. In either situation, the step-parent can petition to adopt the child.

This is the stickiest point in a step-parent adoption. If a natural parent is absent from the child’s life, they are also usually difficult to find. Once found, they may or may not be willing to relinquish their rights, even if they are not currently parenting the child.

This is why the law provides for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights. The adopting step-parent and natural parent must make every effort to find the absent natural parent, and that parent must be notified of all proceedings. One natural parent cannot terminate the rights of another without notification. Neither will the Court terminate a parent’s rights unilaterally, meaning, if one parent’s rights are terminated, the adoptive parent (in this case a step-parent) must assume those rights.

Involuntary Termination is lengthier and involves extra documentation. If the absentee natural parent shows up to contest the adoption, the Judge will continue the matter to another time. This is the nail-biting moment for most step-parents looking to adopt.

In my experience, though, if a natural parent has abandoned the child, they are not likely to make the effort to re-assume the fiscal responsibility of defending their parental rights. It is possible and legally permissible for them to do so, though.

All these variables can make a step-parent adoption tricky. In the end, strategy, patience and documentation almost always result in a happy new nuclear family. For a step-parent, that can be worth more than anything else.