Adopting Your Stepchild

In an age of blended families, it may seem natural for a stepparent to adopt their stepchild, particularly if the biological parent is out of the picture. Adoption, after all, confers important legal rights. It can ease the handling of decisions about medical care and education. It helps ensure the child’s access to health insurance and Social Security benefits. And it can strengthen emotional ties.

“The best interest of the child is the most important consideration for the court,” says family lawyer Christine Henry Andresen, managing attorney at CHA Law Group in Austin. “And love is the most important thing that fuels people wanting to do this.”

Practical considerations also factor in, says Andresen. “Like, ‘We want to send the child for therapy, and they insist on doing an intake with the biological father who hasn’t seen this kid in five years.’ … I think getting a passport is one of the most frequent bureaucratic nightmares when there’s a legal parent who’s absent.”

When uncontested, a stepparent adoption can be relatively straightforward. Texas judges often drop the need for a home evaluation if there are no objections and no past incidents to consider. 

But there are legitimate reasons to not adopt your stepchild as well—particularly if both biological parents are alive. 

“If one biological parent is absent or not as engaged as the stepparent wishes they were, you’re going to have to terminate that person’s rights” as part of the adoption process, says family lawyer Christopher Farish, partner at Quaid Farish in Dallas. “And if that parent were to fight, the fight is going to definitely increase costs.”

More so, Farish adds, because the parent whose rights you’re seeking to terminate is entitled to representation without cost. “And you’re likely going to have to do not only the social study evaluation—hiring a third party to look into the circumstances of the child at your house and things of that nature—but also pay an ad litem [an appointee to represent the child] to come in and interview all the parents, and see how things are in both houses, and talk to the child about their relationships.”

All of which might also put some degree of strain on the child.

“Often the hardest thing about these cases is service,” adds Andresen. “If you’ve got a deeply absent biological parent who’s not visiting the child and not in touch with the primary parent, you still have to try to find them to serve [legal papers to] them.”

The good news is that such uninvolved parents are less likely to contest the adoption. “They might not sign a relinquishment to help,” Andresen says. “But, in my experience, it’s very rare that they file an answer, let alone hire an attorney and actually go and fight the thing.”

Under Texas law, adoption gives a stepparent the same legal rights and responsibilities as a biological parent, so it’s important to consider both sides of that coin. 

“By adopting your stepchild, you would create a true legal bond between you and the child, which would then lend itself to things like inheritance rights,” says Farish. “You may have children from another marriage that may find that intrusive. And if you get a divorce from the other parent, you have a duty to support as if you were the biological father or mother. You’re paying child support and medical insurance and things of that nature.

“The best advice here is to consider it carefully and make sure that you’re doing it for the right reasons,” Farish says. “There are no take-backs.”