At 6 months the foster child’s relationship
with foster parents becomes a “significant relationship,” so it has weight when compared with other nonparental pre-removal relationships.

Foster children are sometimes moved from stable foster families to the homes of people associated with their birth family. At initial removal, keeping children in their broader community is well established as a benefit to the child. But after the child has established a healthy parental attachment with a foster family moving the child, for example, to  their mother’s boyfriend’s sister’s home or even a grandparent may be damaging to the child.

To support quick placements within the child’s family or community, the Department must focus on locating kinship foster care during at least the first 30 days after removal. T.C.A. § 37-2-414(b)(2). If the child is quickly placed with a safe kinship home, the child gains the benefits of a community placement and is spared disruption of a healthy attachment with the foster parents.

The child welfare system focuses primarily on pre-removal relationships and places little value on the child’s attachments formed post-removal. Kids, of course, form parental attachments with loving caregivers without regard to the classifications of people applied by the child welfare system.  A legislative fix offers a way to value the healthy attachments of foster children to foster parents. 

Effective July 1, 2023, T.C.A. § 37-2-403 (b)(4) A foster parent or kinship caregiver whom a child has resided with for six (6) months or more is a person who has a “significant relationship” with the child. Absent evidence to the contrary, the Department, foster care advisory review board, or court may presume that continuation of the child’s placement with, or adoption by, the child’s current caregivers is in the child’s best interest.

At 9 months the foster parents don’t just get
notice of hearings and reviews about the
child but have an increased right to
participate on the issue of the child’s best interest.

Foster parents have long been entitled to prompt notice of all court hearings about the child. After 9 months, they are also permitted to appear and actively participate in hearings and reviews to present evidence regarding the child’s best interest. T.C.A. § 37-2-415(a)(17) and 37-2-416(a) and (b).

At 12 months foster parents
get preference to adopt should
the child become
available for adoption.

T.C.A. § 36-1-115(g)(1) and echoed with a bit less strength at 37-2-415(a)(20).

This is the long-standing foster parent preference to adopt children who have been in their care for one year.

Lawyers and judges are just learning about these new rights.  The judge may not be in the habit of offering foster parents a chance to speak at hearings for a while.  Foster parents may need to stand up and respectfully ask to be recognized.  Foster parents can share a copy of this post with your social worker, GAL, Department lawyer, or court staff as necessary to be recognized. At their own expense, foster parents may also hire an attorney to help them be heard.

Look for a blog post soon about the rumor that foster parents can’t consult lawyers. Spoiler alert, it is fake news.

To have Dawn’s newsy blog post delivered
directly to your email
subscribe at https://dawncoppock.com/legal-topics-attorneys-courts/

Go to https://dawncoppock.com/dcs-foster-parents/ for other useful information about foster parent adoption in Tennessee.

This is not a debated or murky point of Tennessee law. You just can. I do 2 or 3 adult adoptions a year and I have for decades. 

See Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-1-117(j). 
(1) When the person sought to be adopted is eighteen (18) years of age or older, only the sworn, written consent of the person sought to be adopted shall be required and no order of reference or any home studies need be issued.

Chapter 17 of Coppock on Tennessee Adoption Law, 7th Ed. is called, guess what? “Adult Adoptions.”

The law creates a legal relationship because the people have an existing emotional parent-child relationship and think their love is just that important.  

At the hearing, the clients usually cry. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes even the judge and the bailiff cry. 

It is a “real” adoption and the legal part is easy peasy, not just in Tennessee, but pretty much all over the U.S. 

I don’t know anything at all about the case in the news. I just want to be sure that you know that if you want to adopt an adult, like a nephew, niece, stepchild, or former foster child, and they want to be adopted, have at it.

If you and your de facto parent or child want to make it legal, call your local adoption lawyer. 

Dawn Coppock, Attorney
Strawberry Plains, TN

Big addition to foster parent’s right to participate in hearings.

T.C.A. §  37-2-415 (a)(17) – (Public Chapter 263)
For some time, the court has been required to promptly notify foster parents of all court hearings regarding their foster child. They are permitted to attend “at the discretion of the court” which means unless the judge doesn’t want them to.

The new provision says, “A foster parent who has served as the physical placement of the child for a period of nine (9) months or more shall be permitted to appear and actively participate in any permanency hearing or dispositional hearing for the child with regard to the best interest of the child.”

Now there is a right to “actively participate”.

T.C.A. §  37-2-416 – (Public Chapter 263)

(a) “The department shall notify the foster parents, if any, or any prospective adoptive parent or relative providing care for the child in state custody with notice of any review or hearing to be held with respect to the child. The foster parents, if any, of such a child and any prospective adoptive parent or relative providing care for the child shall be provided with notice of the right to be heard in any review or hearing to be held with respect to the child, except that this section shall not be construed to require that any foster parent, prospective adoptive parent, or relative providing care for the child who has served as the physical placement for the child for a period of fewer than nine (9) continuous months be made a party to such review or hearing solely on the basis of such notice and right to be heard.
(b) Any foster parent who has served as the physical placement for the child for a period of nine (9) or more continuous months shall be permitted to appear for the sole purpose of presenting evidence with regard to the best interests of the child.
(c) At each hearing, the court shall determine whether the department has complied with this section.”  

After the child is in the foster parents’ care for 9 months the foster parents have a right to present best interest evidence.

Judges are just learning about these new rights.  As of this post, these changes are not yet in the online version of the Code.  For a while, the judge may not call on you.  You may need to stand up and respectfully ask to be recognized.  You can share a copy of this post with your social worker, GAL, Department lawyer or court staff as necessary to be recognized. 

© Dawn Coppock 7.13.2023

Many psychological professionals, foster parents and lawyers have observed that Tennessee’s “best interest of the child” factors are oddly weighted in favor of the birth parent and not the child. The current factors don’t place much weight on the child’s need for continuity and stability, the child’s emotional attachments, the child’s fear of a birth parent,  or a birth parent’s delay in working toward reunification.

This summer and fall, a group of Tennessee Bar Association members who practice adoption law hammered out more child centered factors. The proposed factors take into account modern science regarding the needs of children, particularly children who have experienced trauma, disruption and medical insults like prenatal drug exposure. I was privileged to work on this project. A number of psychological professionals provided input as well.

 The product is now a bill before the Tennessee legislature, HB200/SB205.

You can follow the progress of the bill through my blog: https://dawncoppock.com/blog/ and also on the Tennessee General Assembly website, http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/ 

I am excited about this bill. Read a copy here:  http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/112/Bill/HB0200.pdf

If you want to read the current law and the proposed changes comparatively, you will find the current best interest of the child factors at T.C.A. 36-1-113(i):

T.C.A. 36-1-111(i) In determining whether termination of parental or guardianship rights is in the best interest of the child pursuant to this part, the court shall consider, but is not limited to, the following:

(1) Whether the parent or guardian has made such an adjustment of circumstance, conduct, or conditions as to make it safe and in the child’s best interest to be in the home of the parent or guardian;

(2) Whether the parent or guardian has failed to effect a lasting adjustment after reasonable efforts by available social services agencies for such duration of time that lasting adjustment does not reasonably appear possible;

(3) Whether the parent or guardian has maintained regular visitation or other contact with the child;

(4) Whether a meaningful relationship has otherwise been established between the parent or guardian and the child;

(5) The effect a change of caretakers and physical environment is likely to have on the child’s emotional, psychological and medical condition;

(6) Whether the parent or guardian, or other person residing with the parent or guardian, has shown brutality, physical, sexual, emotional or psychological abuse, or neglect toward the child, or another child or adult in the family or household;

(7) Whether the physical environment of the parent’s or guardian’s home is healthy and safe, whether there is criminal activity in the home, or whether there is such use of alcohol, controlled substances or controlled substance analogues as may render the parent or guardian consistently unable to care for the child in a safe and stable manner;

(8) Whether the parent’s or guardian’s mental and/or emotional status would be detrimental to the child or prevent the parent or guardian from effectively providing safe and stable care and supervision for the child; or

(9) Whether the parent or guardian has paid child support consistent with the child support guidelines promulgated by the department pursuant to § 36-5-101.

Learn more:

• In the May Tennessee Bar Journal article by Mike Jennings.
• At the Win/Win or Warfare seminar in June.  Visit www.goodlawtn.com to register.
• At www.dawncoppock.wpengine.com.

Sample Contract for Post Adoption Contact – Enforceable
Sample Agreement for Post Adoption Contact – Moral Agreement

Effective March 22, 2019

PACA FACT SHEET

• Post-adoption contact may not be mandated in the final order of adoption. T.C.A. §36-1-121(f)
• Post adoption contact may be agreed upon by contract between birth parents, adoptive parents and the child (if 14 or older). T.C.A. §36-1-145(a)
• Moral agreements for post-adoption contact, popular before enforceable contracts were permitted, may still be used provided that they clearly indicate that the PACA is a moral agreement only and not intended to be enforceable. 
• All written and signed PACAs, executed after March 22, 2019, between birth parents and adoptive parents will be enforceable unless they expressly say that they are not intended to be enforceable. T.C.A. §36-1-145(a)
• Breach of a post adoption contract cannot be a reason to set aside a final order of adoption or rescind a surrender or waiver. T.C.A. §36-1-145(i)
• Adoptive parents or the child may petition a court to modify, terminate or enforce a post adoption contract.  T.C.A. §36-1-145(j)
• A birth parent may only petition a court to enforce a post adoption contract.  T.C.A. §36-1-145(j)
• Birth relatives, other than birth parents, may benefit from a contract for post-adoption contact, but they are not parties to the contract and may not take enforcement action.  T.C.A. §36-1-145(a) and (d)
• Modification and enforcement take place under a 4-tiered structure. The first step is to write a letter to the other party describing the change or enforcement sought. If that does not resolve the issue, then the adoptive parents must secure an opinion as to the child’s best interest from a licensed psychological professional. If that does not prompt resolution, then the parties will attend mediation. Only upon two unsuccessful mediation sessions may court enforcement be sought.  
• The burden of proof is on the party seeking enforcement or modification, and the standard of proof is preponderance of evidence. 
  
• The primary test for determining whether modification or enforcement should be ordered is the best interest of the child. 
  
• The cost of attempts at resolution up to litigation shall be borne by the adoptive parents. The cost of litigation may be taxed by the court to either party, based upon good faith and financial means. 

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.wpengine.com