Chicago Step-Parent Adoption Lawyers

Illinois law allows a step-parent to adopt a child through a process known as "related child adoption." A step-parent adoption allows the step-parent to take the legal place of one of the natural parents, giving the child two legal parents who are also married to one another. Often, families choose a step-parent adoption when the parent who has raised the child has remarried, and the child’s other parent has disappeared or has stopped upholding his or her rights and responsibilities, such as seeking visitation or paying child support.

A step-parent adoption in Illinois requires either that the missing parent consent to the adoption or that the missing parent be found "unfit" as a matter of law. When the missing parent consents to the child’s adoption by a step-parent, the adoption process is relatively simple.

Illinois law asks for the parent’s consent because a step-parent adoption terminates several rights that a natural parent ordinarily has, such as the right to seek visitation with his or her child and the right to be involved in making important decisions for the child. Of course, a step-parent adoption also terminates the natural parent’s responsibilities to the child, such as the responsibility to contribute to the child’s care by paying child support. A step-parent adoption terminates these rights and responsibilities for the natural parent and confers them on the step-parent, who is then responsible for the child’s health and welfare under Illinois law just as a natural parent would be.

When the natural parent does not consent or cannot be found; however, the step-parent adoption process becomes more complicated. If a parent is missing or refuses to consent, Illinois law will not allow a step-parent adoption to proceed unless the court decides that the natural parent is an “unfit person” according to Illinois law. A natural parent may be found to be an "unfit person" for many reasons, which include:

• abandonment;
• failure to maintain a reasonable degree of interest, concern or responsibility for the child's welfare, or for a newborn child during the first 30 days of his or her life;
• desertion of the child for more than three months prior to the step-parent adoption;
• substantial neglect;
• physical abuse;
• failure to protect the child from unsafe or dangerous conditions;
• depravity;
• failure to pay, or to make a good-faith effort to pay, a reasonable amount of the expenses from the child’s birth; and
• failure to pay a reasonable amount to help support the child.

Under Illinois law, the fact that the child’s natural parents were not married when the child was born does not affect whether or not a step-parent adoption can proceed. However, if the child’s natural father wants to contest the step-parent adoption, he may only be allowed to do so if he registered with the state’s Putative Father Registry within 30 days of the child’s birth. This registration identifies him as the person with rights and responsibilities as the child’s natural father. Without this registration, the natural father may not have standing to contest a step-parent adoption.

Step-parent adoption gives a stepfather or stepmother the legal rights to fully meet the needs of all the children in the family. The experienced Illinois adoption attorneys at Nottage and Ward will help you through the process of step-parent adoption. Call Nottage and Ward today to learn more about our experience with step-parent adoption and to see if our services are right for your family.

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