SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 6219

BYSenators Kreidler and Kiskaddon

Changing the review standard for consent to adoption.

Senate Committee on Children & Family Services

Senate Hearing Date(s):February 1, 1988

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 6219 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.

      Signed by Senators Kiskaddon, Chairman; Bailey, Vice Chairman; Garrett, Stratton.

Senate Staff:Jean Soliz (786-7755)

                  February 4, 1988

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN & FAMILY SERVICES, FEBRUARY 1, 1988

BACKGROUND:

The adoption chapter requires a preplacement report to be filed with the court when prospective adoptive parents petition for adoption.  The agency with temporary custody of the child must consent or refuse consent to the adoption, based on the preplacement report.

Prospective adoptive parents are allowed to have additional reports by experts completed if they disagree with the report of the custodial agency, but the court may bypass consent of the agency only if the adoption is in the best interests of the child and the court finds that the agency's refusal to consent is "arbitrary and capricious".

Even if the family can prove to the court that the best interests of the child would be served by granting the adoption petition, the arbitrary and capricious standard is nearly impossible to prove.  As a result, a court is usually precluded from overturning an adoption agency decision regardless of the best interests of a child.

SUMMARY:

The court is no longer required to find that a custodial adoption agency acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when refusing to consent to an adoption.  The court may dispense with the consent requirement if it finds an adoption is in the best interest of the child.

EFFECT OF PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE:

The prospective adoptive parents must prove that overruling the agency's refusal to consent is in the best interests of the child by clear, cogent and convincing evidence.

Appropriation:    none

Revenue:    none

Fiscal Note:      available

Effective Date:July 1, 1988

Senate Committee - Testified: Senator Mike Kreidler; Leslie Sirag and Richard L. Watkins, ASK; Joyce Hopson, Department of Social Services