Can my partner have parental responsibility and adopt my daughter?
Do you have temporary custody or permanent guardianship? If you only have temporary custody, you should speak to your grandchild’s caseworker. In the United States, all children are required to have a permanency plan. If her biological mother is not cooperating with her caseworker or making steps towards being reunited, the caseworker will adapt the plan to terminate her parental rights and fast track your legal adoption of the child. At this point, if you are married, you and your partner will both be able to be listed on the adoption papers. If you are not married, only one of you will be the legal parent. In order to avoid your grandchild being returned to her mother at some point in the future, you must complete a legal adoption. If the mother will not cooperate, the court will still terminate her rights and allow you to adopt her if she is also not cooperating with the permanency plan established by her caseworker. As long as you only have temporary custody, your grandchild’s moth
First of all, I am so sorry for you and your little girl that her mother was too ill to take care of her. I have seen close family members of mine go through a similar situation so I know how hard it can be. I am not sure where you live and therefore I can’t give advice on the legality of your situation, but I know that in the UK the father’s name can be put on the birth certificate later. If you have parental responsibility which has been obtained through the courts, there will be a record of the reasons why this was granted. The fact that your daughter’s mother has no contact is also something which may help your case if you wanted to go back to court and try and get your partner legal guardianship as well as yourself. The best advice I can give is to contact a local family law solicitor and get some advice from them – if you can’t afford to pay legal fees, find out what help is available through legal aid in your area. Good luck and I am sure that you will do the best you can for yo
