Kinship Adoption with Family Law Attorney Timothy Dudley

If you’re a relative considering adopting a child in your family, kinship adoption is when a child who has become legally available for adoption, meaning their parents have either relinquished or had their parental rights terminated, or have passed away, is adopted by a close relative rather than someone unrelated to them.

The goal is to keep the child connected to family and reduce the disruption of entering foster care with strangers. To qualify, you need to actually be related to the child, be at least 21 years old, and have already had physical custody of the child for at least a year. The process generally starts with filing a petition for adoption, followed by background checks, and ends with a court hearing where the adoption is finalized. Kinship adoptions can be straightforward, but they can also get complicated depending on your family’s specific situation, which is why it is worth talking to an attorney before you file anything.