The Montana Legislature has passed supportive laws that have made adoptions easier to accomplish. There are stepparent adoptions, private adoptions (which include interstate and intercounty adoptions), agency adoptions, adult adoptions, and contested adoptions.
Under various circumstances, women often find themselves raising their children without the financial support of their child’s father or the additional emotional support that their children need. For children, a sense of belonging is important to their sense of security and development. Family members and friends often step forward to fill the void created by the absent parent. Under Montana law, these wonderful family members and friends can formalize their relationship with a child through a stepparent adoption. In this process, the adopting individual does not have to be a stepparent but may be an “extended family member” such as a grandparent, uncle, aunt, brother or sister. Even a close friend who has the consent of the custodial parent may proceed with a stepparent adoption.
Through the adoption, the children gain a legally recognized parent who may now extend emotional and financial support. The child may now receive health insurance through the adoptive parent as well as inheritance and other governmental benefits and support made available to legal dependents. Montana encourages the creation of families through adoptions. This encouragement is shown through the ease in which the adoption process has been legislated and in the tax deductions allowed on both the state and federal tax returns for all adoption related expenses. Our children deserve strong, supportive families. Strong families build responsible communities. Stepparent adoption is a relatively inexpensive means to strengthen the identity and security of our children and our families.
Stepparent adoptions are quite common and affordable. Traditionally, we think of stepparent adoption as a situation in which a stepparent is adopting their spouses’ child. However, it is broader than that. Stepparent adoption refers to the adoption of a child by an “extended family member.” This could be the grandparent to the child or an uncle, aunt or even a close family friend. Because it is a stepparent adoption and one of the birth parents retains his or her parental rights, the usual six-month waiting period may be waived. With the consent of the stepparent’s spouse and the consent of the child’s birth parent whose parental rights are terminated, the stepparent may be able in a matter of a couple of weeks obtain an adoption decree.
One of the ways in which the Montana Legislature has made adoptions easier is through the establishment of the Putative Father Registry. A putative father is simply a father who is not married to the mother of his child at the time of the child’s birth. If a man believes he may have fathered a child out of wedlock, then he fills out a form, available at the Courthouse and the registry in Helena, which asks in part for his address. This allows the birth mother to contact the Putative Father Registry and ask that a search be made to determine if the birth father or possible birth father has registered. If the birth father is not registered, the registry issues an affidavit that is filed in the adoption case, so stating. With this affidavit the birth mother and stepparent do not have to take any further steps to notify the birth father. If, however, the birth father is registered and his information indicates his address, he must receive notice of the adoption process so that he may contest if he wishes.
Even if the birth mother has an idea of who the putative father might be, once she has the affidavit from the Putative Father Registry, she does not need to take any further steps to verify, notify, or locate the birth father.
The burden is now on the birth father. The Putative Father Registry clearly places the consequences of a father’s actions on his shoulders. If he wishes to preserve his parental rights, then he needs to register so that that he will receive notice if any adoption proceedings are initiated of his child. The advantage to the birth mother is that the Putative Father Registry eliminates her need to search or even identify the putative father.
Luke, Amy, and Lexi
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