A recent change in Virginia adoption law provides new options for partners or family members seeking to share legal custody of a child under their care. Under the revised law, a second adoptive parent is no longer required to be married to a child’s biological or existing legal parent.
The change has significant implications for many families, including unmarried same-sex couples. Let’s take a closer look at what has changed regarding second parent adoption.
What Is Second Parent Adoption?
A second-parent adoption is a legal procedure by which a co-parent, or other person with legitimate interests, who is not married to the first parent, adopts the child without terminating the first parent’s parental rights. As a result of the adoption, the child has two legal parents, and both have equal legal status in terms of their relationship with the child.
What Was the Old Law?
Before the recent change, Virginia’s adoption law required that anyone seeking to become a legal parent of a child be married to any existing biological or legal parent of the child.
The law meant unmarried partners of biological or adoptive parents could not become legal parents of their partner’s children without first getting married. It also prevented family members other than romantic partners, such as grandparents, from becoming legal co-parents of a child being raised by a single parent.
As a result, many family members and domestic partners were excluded from joint legal parentage, even though they might be living with a child or responsible for much of the child’s day-to-day care and upbringing.
What Has Changed?
Under the revised law, Virginia Code Section 63.2-1241 expands the definition of persons allowed to adopt a child with an existing legal or biological parent to include a spouse as well as a “person with a legitimate interest” who is not a birth parent of a child. The change came into effect on July 1, 2021.
The revision allows any person with a legitimate interest and the child’s existing biological or legal parents to file a joint petition to allow the full adoption of the child by the person without affecting the existing parent’s legal rights.
“Person of Legitimate Interest” Explained
The law changes Virginia’s legal stance from permitting “stepparent adoption” to allowing full second-parent adoption, but who is deemed “a person of legitimate interest”?
The definition now includes long-term domestic partners or those in same-sex civil unions that are not recognized by the State of Virginia.
The revised statute also includes, but is not limited to:
- Grandparents
- Step-grandparents
- Stepparents
- Former stepparents
- Blood relatives
- Family members
What Are the Legal Implications of Adoption?
The legal implications of a second parent adoption are significant. Once adopted, the law does not differentiate between biological or existing legal parents. Both parents now have equal rights over the child.
That also means that if a couple separates, or the relationship sours with a grandparent or other family member who had been caring for a child, that parent retains equal rights to custody of the child. Conversely, a partner or relative who no longer wants to be involved with a child might still be legally required to provide child support payments.
Who Is Affected?
The change is likely to benefit several categories of Virginia couples and families.
Long-Term Partners
The chief beneficiaries of the change in the law are likely to be partners in same-sex and mixed-sex partnerships and civil unions, who now gain formal recognition of the role they might be playing in raising a partner’s children.
Same-Sex Partners
This is particularly important to unmarried same-sex couples, where one parent might have a biological claim to an existing child, or where the couple chooses to have a child together through sperm donation or surrogacy.
A court-backed adoption judgment is also important in protecting the equal parental rights of same-sex couples living in domestic partnerships or civil unions in states, such as Virginia, that do not recognize same-sex civil unions.
Family Co-Parents
The law will make it easier for grandparents or other relatives to play a larger role in the lives of children for which they are providing care. This may be important to many single-parent families. However, allowing someone other than a spouse or domestic partner to become a second parent has significant other legal implications.
How Do I Apply for a Second Parent Adoption?
Quinn Law Centers can assist you in applying for a second parent adoption through the Virginia family court system by filing a joint petition with the existing legal parent of the child.
Second Parent Adoption in Virginia: Let Us Help You Build Your Family
Quinn Law Centers’ Adoption and Surrogacy Law Center is here to help you. We are experts in the legal frameworks of adoptions and assisted reproduction in Virginia, including:
- Second parent and step-parent adoptions
- Same-sex adoptions
- Contested adoptions
- Same-sex reproductive options
Click below to learn more about how our legal term can help you build your family.