Stepparent and relative adoption
Stepparent adoption is the most common kind we see. Someone who has been raising a child makes it legal. Relative adoption is a grandparent, an aunt or an uncle who has been raising a child and wants permanence rather than the year-to-year uncertainty of a guardianship.
Consent is usually the part that takes the time
The other biological parent’s position has to be dealt with before an adoption can go through. Usually that means their consent. Arkansas law also provides that consent is not required from a parent who has deserted or abandoned the child, or who for at least a year has failed significantly and without justifiable cause either to communicate with the child or to support them.
That route is fact-specific and heavily litigated, and the words significantly and without justifiable cause carry a lot of weight. A year of silence does not automatically decide it. If that is the situation you are in, it is worth talking through properly rather than assuming either way.
The home study, and when it is not needed
An adoption normally involves a home study, with background checks and a check of the child maltreatment registry for adults in the household. Arkansas allows the court to dispense with the study in several situations unless it directs otherwise, including a stepparent adoption, an adoption by a relative within the third degree, an adult adoption, and an adoption by someone who has already served as guardian for a year or more.
How long the child has to have been with you
As a general rule a final decree waits until the child has lived in the home for six months. A stepchild is expressly excepted from that requirement, which is the main reason stepparent adoptions move faster than people expect.
The new birth certificate
Once the decree is entered, the circuit clerk applies for a new birth record and the state registrar issues a new certificate in the child’s new name. The original is sealed. We will tell you what to expect, though the timing sits with the state rather than with the court.