Effective March 22, 2019, post adoption contracts may be legally enforceable.
Learn more:
Sample Contract for Post Adoption Contact – Enforceable
Sample Agreement for Post Adoption Contact – Moral Agreement
Tools and Weapons of Termination of Parental Rights
For Litigators and Mediators
Includes Training on the New Enforceable Open Adoption Law
Approved for 6 hours CLE (4 General / 2 Dual)
This is a focused training on contested termination of parental rights.
The morning emphasis is on fostering negotiated resolutions, including training on the new enforceable open adoption law. The afternoon will focus on trial tips, procedure and techniques.
Nashville – June 7, 2019 Knoxville – June 21, 2019
Visit www.goodlawtn.com to view the schedule and to register.
Post Adoption Contact Agreements (PACA) can be legally enforceable
Effective March 22, 2019
PACA FACT SHEET
All relevant provisions will be found at T.C.A. §36-1-121 & §36-1-145. Refer to the legislation until Public Chapters and Tennessee Code revisions are available.
Sample post adoption contact agreements and seminar information to follow.
Prepared by Attorney Dawn Coppock, Attorney At Law
P. O. Box 388 – Strawberry Plains, TN 37871
865.933.8173 – www.dawncoppock.com
On December 12, 2018, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services issued the following significant statement regarding ICPC:
“After consideration of Article VIII and Regulation 10, the Tennessee ICPC office will no longer be processing ICPC packets for children in full guardianship when the non-agency placement is in Tennessee when full guardianship is ordered. The Tennessee ICPC office will continue to process ICPC requests for children in partial guardianship or guardianship of an agency.”
This is a big change, so let’s unpack it. The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, codified in Tennessee at T.C.A. 37-4-201, et. seq. states in Article VIII as follows:
This compact shall not apply to:
(a) The sending or bringing of a child into a receiving statebythe child’s parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult brother or sister, adult uncle or aunt, or the child’s guardian and leaving the child with any such relative or non-agency guardian in the receiving state.
Tennessee and some other states provide prospective adoptive parents with guardianship as part of the adoption process. Article VIII places non-agency guardians outside the applicability of ICPC without any distinction between the sorts of guardianships existing in the various states. Many state ICPC administrators dismiss the “lighter” versions of guardianship granted to adoptive parents, asserting that only a complete guardianship or guardianship with a right of consent is the sort of guardianship that Article VIII intended to reference. Other ICPC administrators disregard the guardianship exception all together.
In Tennessee, prospective adoptive parents routinely obtain court ordered guardianship of a child following either a birth parent’s judicial consent or judicial termination of rights. Upon termination of all legal parents’ and putative father’s rights, and upon review of the prospective adoptive parents’ home study, a Tennessee court may grant an order of “Complete Guardianship” to prospective adoptive parents. This is also commonly called “full guardianship”. This complete guardianship is very broad and includes a “right to consent” to the adoption. Granting guardianship to prospective adoptive parents is not new, but has been part of Tennessee law and practice for thirty years or more.
In non-agency cases, where a child is sent from Tennessee in the complete guardianship of prospective adoptive parents, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services will no longer require or process an ICPC package. This is not inconsistent with the ICPC, but entirely compliant with the ICPC, which by its terms does not apply to a non-agency guardian bringing a child into their home state to adopt.
In private newborn adoptions, a guardianship order is normally entered at a birth parent’s judicial “surrender” hearing. If there is no Tennessee surrender hearing, for example, and another state’s extra-judicial adoption consent document is used, in most cases, the prospective adoptive parents will not have an opportunity to secure an order of complete guardianship from a Tennessee court and therefore, will not become guardians under Tennessee law.
ICPC still applies to Tennessee private adoptions when, for any reason, the prospective adoptive parents do not have a court order of complete guardianship. ICPC also still applies to children who are in the guardianship of an agency.
Tennessee permits non-resident prospective adoptive parents to return to Tennessee to finalize their adoption if a Tennessee court gave the prospective adoptive family complete guardianship of the child.
The recently announced change is significant. Some transitional education and confusion is to be expected. But the net effect is a reduction in legal fees and length of travel for many non-resident prospective adoptive families.
Step Parent & Relative Adoption for Newbs
Basic stepparent and relative adoptions are the daily fare for many general practitioners. But the process is technical. This class offers the basic skills and information you need to competently represent relatives and step-parents, including forms, checklists and when to call for help if a case takes an ugly turn.
Adoption Law Update – Part I: Hidey-holes and Whack-a-mole – When can you ignore an unwed father?
The long-standing advice to possible fathers is, if you don’t want your child right now, lay low and keep your options open; they might not come for your paycheck. If a caretaker decides to adopt it will be their job to find you and to terminate parental your parental rights in a slow and expensive game of Wack-a-Mole: Daddy Edition. But over the years Tennessee law has gradually required less and less searching for fathers down in hidey-holes. Effective July 1, 2018, the game is up. Unwed fathers can still hide, but if they fail to claim their children prospective adoptive parents may not have to look for them. Whether you are advising fathers, mothers or adoptive parents, you need to know the new rules of the game.
Adoption Law Update – Part II: Grounds and Procedure
First in Adoption, a comprehensive adoption reform legislative package, was effective July 1, 2018. Almost every termination and adoption case is affected by this new law. Practitioners who want, not just a list of changes, but to understand how those changes impact your cases and the advice that you give, this seminar is for you.
Using Your Powers for Good. Legislative Action for Lawyers.
Dawn Coppock will present tools for effective legislative advocacy. Examples will draw from her environmental and adoption legislative advocacy, but the process and techniques apply to all state level advocacy. With just a bit of information, lawyers are uniquely insightful, skilled and effective citizens/lobbyists.
StepParent & Relative Adoption for Newbs
Basic stepparent and relative adoptions are the daily fare for many general practitioners. But the process is technical. This class offers the basic skills and information you need to competently represent relatives and stepparents, including forms, checklists and when to call for help if a case takes an ugly turn.
1.5 hours CLE credit (1 hour general / .5 dual general/ethics)
Knoxville Registration: 10:00 – 10:30 / Seminar 10:30 – 12:00
Nashville Registration: 8:00 – 8:30 / Seminar 8:30 – 10:00
Cost: $150
Materials: Stepparent checklist and basic forms.
Adoption Law Update – Part I: Hidey-holes and Whack-a-mole – When can you ignore an unwed father?
The long-standing advice to possible fathers is, if you don’t want your child right now, lay low and keep your options open; they might not come for your paycheck. If a caretaker decides to adopt it will be their job to find you and to terminate your parental rights in a slow and expensive game of Whack-a-Mole: Daddy Edition. But over the years Tennessee law has gradually required less and less searching for fathers down in hidey-holes. Effective July 1, 2018, the game is up. Unwed fathers can still hide, but if they fail to claim their children prospective adoptive parents may not have to look for them. Whether you are advising fathers, mothers or adoptive parents, you need to know the new rules of the game.
1 hour general CLE credit
Knoxville Registration 1:00 – 1:30 / Seminar 1:30 – 2:30
Nashville Registration: 10:00 – 10:15 / Seminar 10:15 – 11:15
Cost: $100
Materials- Handouts
Adoption Law Update – Part II: Grounds and Procedure
First in Adoption, a comprehensive adoption reform legislative package, was effective July 1, 2018. Almost every termination and adoption case is affected by this new law. Practitioners who want, not just a list of changes, but to understand how those changes impact your cases and the advice that you give, this seminar is for you.
1.5 hours CLE (1 hour general / .5 dual general/ethics)
Knoxville Registration: 2:30 – 3:00 / Seminar: 3:00 – 4:30
Nashville Registration: 12:45 – 1:00 / Seminar 1:00 – 2:30
Cost: $150
Materials- Handouts
Using Your Powers for Good. Legislative Action for Lawyers.
Dawn Coppock will present tools for effective legislative advocacy. Examples will draw from her environmental and adoption legislative advocacy, but the process and techniques apply to all state level advocacy. With just a bit of information, lawyers are uniquely insightful, skilled and effective citizens/lobbyists.
1 hour dual (general / ethics) CLE credit
Knoxville Registration 4:30 – 5:00 / Seminar 5:00 – 6:00
Nashville Registration 2:30 – 2:45 / Seminar 2:45 – 3:45
Cost: $65.00
Materials Tennessee Blue Books provided
Tenn. Sup. Ct. Rule 8 [7] As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice, and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law, and work to strengthen legal education. In addition, a lawyer should further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system because legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.
Register for individual seminars or register for all four for $390.00.
Dawn Coppock will present tools for effective legislative advocacy. Examples will draw from her environmental and adoption legislative advocacy, but the process and techniques apply to all state level advocacy. With just a bit of information, lawyers are uniquely insightful, skilled and effective citizens/lobbyists.
Adoption seminars also available on these dates.
Please see www.goodlaw.com for more information.
From the Tennessee Bar Journal’s July 2018 cover story by Dawn Coppock and Michael Jennings, read the article here discussing the new adoption legislation that went into effect yesterday.
To be used beginning July 1st, 2018
Click here for the new surrender form available in WORD and PDF formats
Lawyers and Clerks– If you have determined that a surrender is the correct process for a voluntary termination of parental rights in your case, you will find the new form in the Tennessee Code as amended effective July 1st, 2018. T.C.A. § 36-1-1119(b). But if you cut and paste it from the Code, it will look “Hobo” as we say in my family. But it takes awhile to format it and make it look nice. My office has done that already, and in the spirit of collegiality and celebration of this exciting legal development, here it is. You’re welcome.
Because none of us have done one of exactly these before, here are my brief thoughts on how this will go. More is available in Coppock on Tennessee AdoptionLaw, 7th edition. A supplement to incorporate the new surrender form and other First in Adoption Actchanges is planned for September 2018, but because much of the law around the surrender process remains unchanged, the current edition remains useful on this and most other TN adoption issues.
1) MAKE AN APPOINTMENT Like before, you contact a judge and schedule a surrender hearing, and ask the surrendering party, accepting party, and both parties counsel to be present. The rules on pre-surrender counseling and legal counsel, timing of the surrender and physical custody, are the same. Legal and social counseling must be offered to the surrendering party and received pre-surrender, if it is desired. The child must be at least 4-days-old before surrender, and the accepting party must have physical custody of the child at the time of surrender. Physical custody is a defined term. T.C.A. § 36-1-102(39). There is some “wiggle room” on physical custody for children in the hospital and such. T.C.A.§ 36-1-111(d)(6). But, physical custody is a threshold requirement and may not be waived.
2) PRE-SURRENDER INFORMATIONS FORMS Parties need ID, AND now they need their respective “pre-surrender information forms” done and in hand. Found at T.C.A. § 36-1-111(b)(4) for the surrendering party, (b)(5) for the accepting party.
Lay people will need professional help with these forms from their respective advocates. Because the forms are offered to the court as sworn evidence and collect legally significant information previously gathered by a judge, advocates should carefully review the forms for completeness and correctness before submission.
I plan to interview my client to obtain the information, complete the form for them, and go over it with them to confirm correctness before the form is offered to the court.
3) OTHER ATTACHMENTS The additional attachments are the accepting parties social and medical history form, the same DCS form previously required and available from DCS,
and
If the surrender is executed to anyone other than a licensed adoption agency or DCS, the accepting parties current and approved court report from their home study is required. You can’t waive this, ever.
This is not new law. In relative adoptions, a homestudy may be waived by the court at the adoption phase, but not at surrender. If relatives don’t have and don’t want to get a homestudy, a surrender is not the correct way to terminate parental rights in the case.
4) SURRENDER FORM The actual surrender form is found at T.C.A. § 36-1-111(b)(5). Before you see the judge, attach the two information forms, the blank revocation form, (T.C.A. § 36-1-111(b)(6)), the completed social and medical history and the homestudy, if required. Complete all the blanks on the form except the signatures and maybe the date of execution. Carefully calculate the revocation period. The revocation period is 3 days as calculated under T.R.C.P. 6.01. Mistakes here, particularly understating the revocation period, could be serious. There is a chart (p. 38)and explanation of how this works (Chapter 3) in Coppock on Tennessee Adoption Law,7th Edition, and that process is unchanged by recent changes in the law. In my office, we have a rule, every surrender package and particularly calculation of the revocation period must be reviewed by two pairs of eyes before we offer it to the court. And even here, the second pair of eyes occasionally finds errors. The new process certainly has less traps for the unwary than the old one and we are “tickled”. Still we are keeping the rule.
5) SURRENDER HEARING The laws regarding how the surrender hearing is conducted remain unchanged. The hearing is in private, generally in chambers. A court officer or clerk may be present. The only other person who can be present with a surrendering party is their lawyer; not the other parent, an emotional support person and particularly, not a representative of the agency to whom the child will be surrendered. The hearing is designed, not only for the judge to ensure completeness of the paperwork, but more importantly, to talk with the surrendering party to determine if they understand what a surrender does and whether this step is their free choice. Judges reach these goals in different ways.
After the surrendering party signs and exits the judge’s office, the accepting party does the same. Often, the accepting party will present a motion and order for full or partial guardianship at this time. The rules around guardianship are unchanged. Forms and discussion of guardianship are available in my book.
6) POST SURRENDER After the surrender is executed by both parties, the clerk should take the original. The statutory directions for court clerks remain unchanged, but are no longer included on the forms. The surrendering and accepting parties and their counsel each should leave with certified copes of the surrender, and the surrendering party should leave with a blank revocation form and should understand how to revoke if they decide to do so.
NOTE TO LAY PEOPLE– Yes, there is much law on the web. Maybe some of it you can use without doing great harm. Of course, everyone has a right to represent themselves, but in termination of parental rights the stakes for a child’s stability are quite high. A surrender is a technically detailed process for an attorney, one of the most tricky issues is determining if it is the right form for any particular case, and then exactly when and where it should be signed. In every case, it must be signed in front of a judge to be effective. As they say on T.V., but seriously, ”Don’t try this at home.”
Call a good lawyer with experience in adoption.