Fort Collins Adoption Attorney

Adoption is a uniquely special pathway to parenthood. It connects children who would otherwise lack parental care with parents seeking to add a child to their family and provide parental care and nurturing. When adults choose to love, nurture, and provide for a child that’s not biologically their own, they give that child the greatest, most unselfish gift, one that is life-changing for the child as well as the parents. Fortunately, Colorado encourages this means of starting a family or adding a new member to a loving family who will embrace the new addition.

If you have decided that you wish to give a child the love, support, and security of belonging to your family through adoption, the Colorado adoption attorneys in Fort Collins are ready to help you take that joyous leap.

Why Choose Our Adoption Lawyer in Fort Collins

The Law Office of Stephen Vertucci, LLC, is a law firm with family-centered advocacy as its primary goal. Since 2016, our firm has resolved family law cases with a history of success, including skilled legal counsel for parents adopting a child. We offer unique advantages to guide you through your child adoption process:

• A law firm dedicated to family law practices
• A legal team with a deep knowledge base in all aspects of family law including the state’s complex adoption laws
• A policy of open communication and availability because we understand the vital importance of your adoption case and believe in keeping you informed of every step in the process
• Meticulous attention to detail so you never have to worry about paperwork or filing errors impacting your adoption case
• A history of successful adoption cases and happy families

The Fort Collins family law attorneys at Law Office of Stephen Vertucci offers the dedicated attention of a small-town law firm in Fort Collins with the advantages, contacts, and resources of a large law firm. We are the adoption lawyers in Fort Collins who can assist you in adding to your family.

What Is the Legal Definition of Adoption In Colorado?

The Colorado State Court describes adoption as the following:

“An adoption is the legal process where birth parents’ rights are terminated and permanently awarded to adoptive parents. When a child is adopted, the adopting parents assume all the rights and responsibilities for the child. A birth parent cannot reappear one day and try to reclaim parental rights of the child.”

Adoption differs from legal guardianship in that the biological parents keep their parental rights during legal guardianship, though the guardian has the custody and care of the child. In an adoption, the child’s biological parents terminate their legal rights and the adoptive parents assume all parental rights at the final adoption hearing.

A guardian may adopt their ward if the biological parents terminate their parental rights or abandon the child. To learn more about legal guardianship, check out our Fort Collins guardianship lawyer page.

What Types of Adoptions Are Available in Fort Collins, Colorado?

Adoption in Colorado terminates both biological parents’ legal rights to their child and transfers them to the adoptive parents. The types of adoption available to families in Colorado include:

• Foster care adoption: prospective parents may either adopt a child from the foster care system if the child is available for adoption rather than waiting for unification with a biological parent, or foster parents who’ve fostered a child who becomes available choose to adopt the child they’ve been caring for
• Private domestic infant adoption in Colorado: Typically, this type of adoption occurs through private agencies or attorneys who facilitate the adoption of an infant born in the United States to parents who choose to give the child up for adoption into a loving family
• Step-parent adoption: this occurs when a step-parent adopts their spouse’s biological child and requires the other biological parent (if living) to terminate their parental rights or to have abandoned the child for one year or more by failing to provide child support or to care for the child during their scheduled custody or visitation days
• Relative (kinship) adoption: this type of adoption takes place when a relative like a grandparent, aunt or uncle, or adult sibling adopts a child relative
• Second-parent adoption: this type of adoption occurs when a second parent adopts a child belonging to a biological parent without that biological parent terminating their rights—a common legal arrangement between same-sex spouses when one spouse has a biological child and the other wishes to become an adoptive parent with equal parental rights
• Foreign adoption: adopting a child from another country in compliance with both U.S. laws and those of another country
• Adult adoption: this is the process of legalizing a parent-child-like relationship between one adult and another person who is over the age of 18. Often this is done to create a legal heir and requires the consent of both parties

Our Fort Collins adoption lawyers at The Law Offices of Stephen Vertucci are experienced in all of the above types of adoption and are ready to help you navigate this life-changing process in the most streamlined, stress-free way possible.

Who Can Adopt a Child In Colorado?

Those seeking to adopt a child in Colorado must be at least 21 years old and free of any criminal history of child abuse, neglect, domestic abuse, felony drug crimes, violent crimes, felony assault or battery, or any crimes involving minors.

Colorado does not discriminate against same-sex couples, including in matters of adoption in Fort Collins or elsewhere in the state. You do not have to be married to adopt a child in Colorado.

Prospective adoptive parents must have health records indicating that they are physically and mentally healthy and fit enough to raise a child and have adequate financial resources to provide for the child.

Finally, when married parents seek to adopt a child, both spouses must agree to the decision and both parents must adopt the child.

What Is the Process for Child Adoption In Fort Collins? 

A skilled attorney will guide you through the adoption process to ensure the smoothest possible transition to your new family. Knowing what to expect from the adoption process is beneficial for parents who are preparing.

First, Attend the Initial Information Session

Adoption and foster care agencies in Colorado have informational meetings scheduled regularly year-round. Attending a session helps to prepare parents for the adoption process, including domestic infant adoption and foster care adoptions.

Complete all Required Training

All parents seeking a Colorado adoption must complete the required training. This includes:

• Basic CPR and first aid
• 27 hours of Core Training by both parents (in two-parent adoptions)
• A 16-hour home study training session

For those who become foster parents before adopting, fostering in Colorado requires 20 hours of additional training per year.

Complete a Home Study

A home study is required for all child adoptions. This comprehensive study by a Child Welfare agency assesses the prospective parents, their home, and their financial resources to ensure that it’s a good fit for a child to receive the care, security, and nurturing that they need. The home study includes background checks of both parents, interviews with prospective parents and other family members, an evaluation of the home environment, and often community references. The home study may take up to six months to complete before parents become certified to foster or adopt.

The goal of a home study is to find the right family for a child rather than to find a child for the family.

Parents must pay for a home study, but if the cost is prohibitive and the child is in the custody of a county child welfare agency, the agency may waive the cost of the home study.

The Matching Process

Depending on the type of adoption the parents choose, the matching process may take place in the foster care system when a child welfare caseworker matches children with prospective parents. Although the primary goal of foster care is to reunite children with their biological parents once the parents have improved their circumstances, this isn’t always possible, leaving many foster children available for adoption. Prospective adoptive parents may choose to foster only children whose parents are deceased or have terminated their parental rights, or they may foster a child whose parents have not yet terminated their rights. Once a match is made, the caseworker begins helping the child to transition to their new family and maintains regular contact for at least six months.

For private adoption, the matching process typically requires parents to fill out a detailed informational packet which the private agency or attorney then submits to pregnant mothers who have chosen to place their child with adoptive parents. The biological mother may then request more information or an interview with the adoptive parents she selects before the process moves forward.

The Adoption Finalization

An adoption is finalized at a hearing in a family court in the jurisdiction where the private adoption takes place or in the county of the child welfare agency in a foster care adoption. At the end of the hearing, the adoptive parents become the child’s legal parents with full parental rights.

Children over the age of 12 must give consent to their adoption in Colorado.

What Is an Adoption Reversal?

Adoption reversal or annulment is a rare procedure but sometimes occurs when the adoptive parents have a significant long-term change of circumstances, such as an accident with catastrophic injuries, or if the relationship with the child has deteriorated to the point that it is no longer in the child’s best interest to remain placed with the family, or if a biological parent has a change of heart and wishes to reestablish their parental rights. A mature adopted child or adopted adult may also seek an adoption reveral by requesting emancipation.

An adoption may be reversed by any of the involved parties within 91 days of the finalization of the adoption. 

In rare cases, the court may make an exception to the 91-day time limit for overturning and adoption under the state’s “best interest of the child” standard which forms the basis of all Colorado family court decisions.

Under Colorado C.R.S. 19-5-214, the law states:

“When a final decree of adoption is attacked on any basis at any time, the court shall consider the best interests of the child, taking into account the factors set forth in section 14-10-124, C.R.S. The court shall sustain the decree unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the decree is not in the best interests of the child.”

Colorado Adoption Through a Family Law Attorney in Fort Collins

A family attorney in Colorado helps parents prepare for adoption and guides them through every step of the process, whether they choose foster care adoption, private adoption through an agency, or international adoption. 

In an international adoption, the adoptive parents must petition the court for validation of a child adoption that took place in another country. At least one of the parents in an international adoption must be a U.S. citizen and a Colorado resident. The validation decree of an international adoption gives the adoptive parents full parental rights over the child just as in a domestic adoption.

An attorney can also facilitate a private adoption, for instance, when a couple seeks to adopt the child of a friend or relative who wishes to place their child with the couple.

Call Adoption Lawyers in Fort Collins Today

Adoption is a legally and emotionally complex process. The compassionate, family-centered attorneys at the Law Office of Stephen Vertucci understand the depth of emotion that goes into the decision to adopt and the resolve it takes for prospective parents to complete this emotionally fraught process. We are ready to put our experience and deep knowledge base in Colorado family law behind your Fort Collins adoption.

Call our Fort Collins family law office today so we can help you take the first steps in the life-changing process of opening your home and heart to a child and then guide you through every step of the process all the way to the final hearing when you become a parent to your child.