Child Adoption Law in Ohio: Ohio Laws

A person seeking to adopt a minor shall utilize an agency or attorney to arrange the adoption. An attorney may not represent with regard to the adoption both the person seeking to adopt and the parent placing a child for adoption.
Any person may informally aid or promote an adoption by making a person seeking to adopt a minor aware of a minor who will be or is available for adoption.

Assessor to conduct home study.

Assessor to conduct home study - false statements. Goes into effect 1/1/25

Contents of Petition - Form ePC-A-18.0 from the Franklin County Probate Court.

Preliminary estimate and final accounting - summary of proceedings. Living expenses paid to a birth mother may not exceed $3000. Living expenses must be paid directly to the provider whenever possible, instead of to birth parents. Form ePC-A-18.9A from the Franklin County Probate Court.

Consent to adoption must be obtained from mother, father, any "putative" father, any person or agency having permanent custody of the minor, and the minor if more than twelve years of age. Form ePC-A-18.3 from the Franklin County Probate Court.

A man who has sexual intercourse with a woman is on notice that if a child is born as a result, the child may be adopted without his consent pursuant to division (B) of section 3107.07 of the Revised Code.

Putative father registry. Father must register no later than 15 days after the baby's birth in order to preserve his rights.

Consent of putative father is unnecessary if he fails to register with the putative father registry.

Conditions for accepting parent's consent. parent of a minor, when it is alleged in the adoption petition and the court, after proper service of notice and hearing, finds by clear and convincing evidence that the parent has failed without justifiable cause to provide more than de minimis contact with the minor or to provide for the maintenance and support of the minor as required by law or judicial decree for a period of at least one year immediately preceding either the filing of the adoption petition or the placement of the minor in the home of the petitioner.

Conditions for accepting parent's consent. Goes into effect 1/1/25

(A) After the filing of a petition to adopt an adult or a minor, the court shall fix a time and place for hearing the petition. The hearing may take place at any time more than thirty days after the date on which the minor is placed in the home of the petitioner. At least twenty days before the date of hearing, notice of the filing of the petition and of the time and place of hearing shall be given by the court to all of the following:
(1) Any juvenile court, agency, or person whose consent to the adoption is required by this chapter but who has not consented;
(2) A person whose consent is not required as provided by division (A), (G), (H), or (I) of section 3107.07 of the Revised Code and has not consented;
(3) Any guardian, custodian, or other party who has temporary custody or permanent custody of the child.

Six month waiting period prior to finality of adoption.

Waiting period prior to finality. Goes into effect 1/1/25

Court will grant adoption if it finds that the required consents have been obtained or excused and that the adoption is in the child's best interest.

Determining best interest of child in contested adoption - factors to consider

Contents of custody affidavit. Form ePC-A-18.P3 in Franklin County Probate Court.

A licensed private adoption agency or a public child services agency may accept a voluntary permanent surrender of a child. Or the agency may take temporary custody, and later file for permanent custody in juvenile court.

A voluntary permanent surrender is irrevocable unless it is shown by clear and convincing evidence that consent was obtained by duress, fraud or undue influence, instead of by free choice.

Duties of prospective parent of adoptee.

Duties prospective parent of adoptee. Goes into effect 1/1/25.

Duties of assessor.

Duties of assessor. Goes into effect 1/1/25

Juvenile court shall conduct a review hearing of an agreement the court approves once every seven months after the agreement is entered into if a final decree or interlocutory order of adoption for the child who is the subject of the agreement has not been issued or become final and the agreement is still in effect.

The purpose of this section is to require agency or probate court involvement in any pre-adoptive placement.

Certification required before associations and institutions may accept temporary or permanent custody of child. Goes into effect 1/1/25

If a private child placing agency or public children services agency has placed a child in a foster home or with a relative of the child, other than a parent of the child, the agency shall notify the child's foster caregiver or relative if the agency seeks permanent custody of the child, or, if the agency already has permanent custody of the child, seeks to place the child for adoption.

Limitations on advertising and inducements to adoption.

Advertising or inducements as to adoption or foster home placement. Goes into effect 1/1/25

Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) requires that adoptive parents get permission of the compact administrator of both the home state of the child and the receiving state before taking the child across state lines.

Passed 12/24. Would include time spent in kinship care to count towards the 6 months waiting period for adoption. Would allow adoption of developmentally disabled adult. Would provide for automatic approval of foreign adoptions either parent is an Ohio resident and an IR-3 or IH-3 visa has been issued to the child by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Journalists may request the residential address of public children service agency employee, private child placing agency employee, juvenile court employee, law enforcement agency employees.

No probate court shall issue a final decree of adoption or an interlocutory order of adoption making a person an adoptive parent if the person or, in the case of a prospective foster caregiver or prospective adoptive parent, any person eighteen years of age or older who resides with the prospective foster caregiver or prospective adoptive parent previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to any of the violations described in division (A)(4) of section 109.572 of the Revised Code, unless the person meets rehabilitation standards established in rules adopted under division (F) of this section.

Criminal Records Check. Effective 1/1/25

Indigent parents are entitled to counsel in adoption proceedings in probate court as a matter of equal protection of the law under the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution

Changes adoption tax incentives at the state level to outright grants. Under the very new law, the Ohio adoption grant is $10,000, $15,000 for foster parents adopting the child they foster, and $20,000 for adopting a special needs child. The bill also creates a new $2,500 grant to pay for college expenses for adopted children. However, the new adoption grants are not available in stepparent adoptions.