When you call the office of Amy Slaughter, you will be able to speak with a staff member who is determined to work hard for you. The important information necessary to begin your adoption case will be gathered from you at the initial phone conversation. Many clients who live all over the state and in other states choose to work with Amy from the convenience of their own home towns.

Once all of the needed documents from case workers and social workers are completed, your adoption will be set for final hearing. Please come ready to celebrate. Bring your family, friends, the child or children to be adopted, and your camera!

The Legal Process for CPS and Private Agency Adoptions

Before an adoption can be completed, the child to be adopted must have lived for six months in your home with you and the other permanent members of your household. Once your private agency or CPS determines that the adoption is ready to go forward, your caseworker will tell you that it is time to choose an attorney. You may call your attorney of choice and arrange for him or her to represent you. Be sure to ask that attorney about the billing process and retainer fee that he or she may charge. Have information about your case worker or workers on hand such as names and phone numbers.

Your attorney will contact your caseworker or workers and let them know that you have retained his or her services. The attorney will ask the worker at that time to send a copy of the original order that terminated the parent child relationship between your child and the biological parents. That decree is very important because it has the cause number, the court number, and all of the information about the prior attorneys involved in the case.

Then your attorney will prepare an Original Petition for the Adoption of a Child to file with the court along with the filing fees that the county charges. That fee is usually around $260.00. The Petition is filed in the court of continuing jurisdiction, the court that terminated the parent child relationship. The attorney will then send copies of that Petition to your caseworker or workers.

There are several documents that must be filed with the court under the Texas Family Code in order for all of the pre-requisites of law to be met and the adoption completed. The Home Study completed by your caseworker. The Post Placement or Court Report is completed after the child is placed in the home. The Health, Social, Education, Genetic History Report (HSEGH) is the report that informs you, to the best of the agency's knowledge, of your child's back ground. The Affidavit of Waiver of Citation and Consent to the Adoption is completed by the managing conservator of the child, CPS. Lastly, the Criminal History Background Check run through the FBI must be filed with the court.

The federal law, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, requires any agency placing a child in a home after October 1, 2006, for adoption or for foster care to run a criminal history background check for every adult living in the home through the FBI. The Texas Family Code requires that the criminal history background check be less than 12 months old. Additionally, judges have judicial discretion to require a check to be run through the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The Department of Family and Protective Services has contracted a corporation to assist in the live scan of fingerprints that are uploaded to the FBI. This FAST fingerprinting is still fairly new and many caseworkers are learning a complicated system. On top of it, the company originally contracted by the state was bought out by another company, IDENTIX. That company, in turn, has changed its own internal procedures. Therefore, all of the caseworkers who were trying to learn a brand new system have had the confusing duty of changing horses midstream.

Please have a lot of compassion and patience with your caseworkers and know that there are many people working hard at your agency to get your adoption done for you. You probably will not feel like that is the case because you will not get to see first hand how much goes into preparing for an adoption. But there are tons of hoops to jump through, especially when the State of Texas is the managing conservator of your child. In that case, because the State that must ensure that the children who are placed are put into safe environments, every "I" must be dotted and every "T" properly crossed.

Once an adoption is complete, it is permanent and cannot be undone. This is why the minimum six month placement period is so important. Families must use that time to determine that adoption is in the best interest of the child to be adopted as well as any other children already in the home. You must also use that time to ensure that this is a commitment that you can fulfill. After the Order is granted, it has the same effect as when a biologically related child is born to you.

A Note About Legal Risk Adoptions-- A "legal risk"� placement is a placement that will probably result in an adoption. However, sometimes the biological parents or a relative might contest the termination of the parent child relationship. In such a case a parent has a Constitutional right at stake and is entitled to due process of law. Sometimes, the court will give the biological parents extensions of time in order to demonstrate that they are not unfit to parent their children. In other circumstances it might mean that the appellate time period or the appeals process is incomplete. Each adoption that falls into this category is different according to the facts of that specific case and the court that is hearing those facts. The basic premise is that the permanency of the adoptive placement is never decided until the judge signs the Order Granting Adoption.

The Legal Process for Private Adoptions

If you have learned of a child that you can adopt directly from a private individual, the process is a bit different and quite a bit of time. This is an unusual circumstance because more and more biological parents are choosing to raise their children despite their age or situation in life. It does happen though and if you find yourself in such a circumstance, you are blessed. If you learn of such a child and you have been contemplating adoption, do not hesitate. Jump on that opportunity because there are hundreds of families waiting for just such a chance.

This process most often consists of the biological parents signing affidavits voluntarily giving up their rights. Those affidavits are then filed with the Original Petition for Termination of the Parent Child Relationship and for the Adoption of a Child. The court to which your case is assigned will then appoint an attorney ad litem or amicus attorney. This attorney represents the child and is his or her lawyer. That attorney's job is to make sure that the adoption is in the best interest of the child. The court will also order a Home Study and Post Placement report to be completed by a social worker. Both of these professionals will charge a fee that must be paid by the adoptive family in addition to any fees that your attorney charges you and costs of court.

The criminal history background check must be done by you. This consists of approaching your local police department and requesting it to finger print you on FBI fingerprint cards. Those cards, accompanied by a letter signed by you requesting the criminal history background check, are then mailed to the Department of Public Safety. DPS later sends the results to the court in which your adoption is pending.

Like agency adoptions, the child must have resided with you for at least six months prior to the consummation of the adoption. After that time, and after all of the reports by the social worker and the child's attorney are complete, you and your child will go to court with your attorney and the child's attorney to finalize your adoption.

Regardless of how your child comes to you, remember that this is a very happy occasion. In fact, it is the only happy thing that happens in court. Do not leave the child with a sitter because the judge will want to see that he or she is happy and healthy. Bring friends, family, any balloons or special treats, and a camera with you to court.

Please feel free to call Michele Teal, Adoption Coordinator, or Amy Slaughter, Attorney at Law, with any questions that you may have regarding adoptions.