Adopting a Child in Louisiana

Louisiana has three types of child adoption: agency, private and intrafamily. In agency and private adoptions, a single person 18 or older, or a married couple jointly, may petition. A private adoption requires a preplacement home study by a licensed professional, leading to a certification for adoption completed within 12 months before placement, plus criminal and child abuse records checks. Consent or relinquishment is required from the mother, the legal or presumed father, an alleged or biological father who has established his parental rights, and any custodial agency, unless parental rights were terminated. The case is filed in juvenile court, generally in the parish where the petitioner or the child's custodian is domiciled.

A stepparent may file an intrafamily adoption if related to the child through the mother or a legally filiated father, is over 18 (a married petitioner's spouse joins unless the spouse is the child's parent who consents), and has had legal or physical custody for at least six months before filing. A parent may consent by authentic act; a parent married to the stepparent who signs one need not join the petition. The other parent's consent can be dispensed with on clear and convincing proof that, without just cause, for at least six months that parent failed to pay court-ordered support or failed to visit or communicate with the child. Criminal and child abuse records checks are ordered on filing, but the department investigates (home study) only if the court orders it.