All Roll Calls
Yes: 127 • No: 0
ArkansasSB5992025 Regular SessionSenateWALLET
TO ELIMINATE INTERLOCUTORY DECREES OF ADOPTION; AND TO AMEND THE REVISED UNIFORM ADOPTION ACT.
Sponsored By: Clarke Tucker (Democratic), Ashley Hudson (Democratic)
Enacted
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 1 costs, 4 mixed.
Adopted children get coverage at finalization
Family health policies governed by Arkansas Code chapter 23-98 must cover adopted minors starting on the final adoption decree date. A temporary adoption decree no longer starts this required coverage. The requirement to cover newborns from birth remains unchanged. The supplied text gives no premium amount.
Final adoption orders replace temporary orders
Arkansas courts no longer issue temporary adoption orders that automatically become final. Required consents must be obtained or excused, and consent and relinquishment withdrawal periods must end before an adoption takes effect. After a hearing, the court must also find that adoption serves the adopted person's best interest. Outside Department of Human Services custody, children generally must live in the adoptive home for six months after agency placement or petition filing. This includes placement by a licensed placement agency. Stepchildren and children under six months old when the petition is filed are exempt. Children in department custody also generally need six months in the home. Exceptions cover medically necessary care outside the home and children under six months old. The director can also waive this requirement for minors 16 or older in life-skills, technical, or vocational programs. The law applies to decrees entered after its effective date, which the supplied text does not identify. Earlier temporary decrees from courts with jurisdiction remain valid under their original terms.
Parents pay support until final adoption
Adoption does not end a parent's child-support duty until the court enters a final adoption decree. A temporary adoption decree alone no longer ends that duty. Support ends automatically when the final decree removes all of the paying parent's parental rights and responsibilities. The law also recognizes earlier temporary decrees that already became final. Other automatic grounds for ending child support remain unchanged.
Final adoption establishes family and records
A final adoption decree establishes the adoptive parent as the child's legal parent, including for inheritance and other legal purposes. A document can expressly exclude the adopted person. The decree ends biological parents' rights and responsibilities and generally severs legal ties to biological relatives, including inheritance rights. It preserves ties to the adoptive parent's spouse and that spouse's relatives. After final adoption, the clerk must send a new-name birth-record application to the vital statistics office where the person was born. The clerk also sends the decree to the Division of Vital Records, which can issue a replacement birth certificate under applicable law. Previously ordered sibling visits can continue for children formerly in Department of Human Services custody when siblings join different adoptive families. Continued visits must serve the siblings' best interests. This protection does not apply to a stepparent adoption when a deceased parent's paternity was not legally established before filing.
Residency rules shape Arkansas family adoptions
Arkansas has adoption jurisdiction when either the child or the person seeking adoption is an Arkansas resident. For children under six months, the birth mother must have lived in Arkansas for more than four months immediately before birth. The child must be born in Arkansas or an immediately bordering city separated only by a navigable river. The child must stay in Arkansas until the decree is entered. Out-of-state adoptive families with Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children approval can take the child home and return for the hearing. Children six months or older must have lived in Arkansas for six months and still live there. They must also be present when the petition is filed and heard. A person seeking adoption must occupy an Arkansas dwelling, intend to stay, and maintain a physical presence beyond a temporary visit. Adoption petitions for children with open Arkansas juvenile cases must be filed within those cases. The court can keep jurisdiction over children placed outside Arkansas under interstate placement rules.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsors
Clarke Tucker
Democratic • Senate
Ashley Hudson
Democratic • House
Cosponsors
Clint Penzo
Republican • Senate
Tippi McCullough
Democratic • House
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 4/14/2025
House Vote - Monday, April 14, 2025 6:50:59 PM
Yes: 92 • No: 0 • Other: 3
Senate vote • 4/8/2025
Senate Vote - Tuesday, April 8, 2025 3:33:57 PM
Yes: 35 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Notification that SB599 is now Act 744
4/18/2025SenateDELIVERED TO GOVERNOR.
4/15/2025SenateReported correctly enrolled and ordered delivered to the Governor.
4/15/2025SenateORDERED ENROLLED
4/14/2025SenateReturned from the House as passed.
4/14/2025SenateReturned to the Senate as passed.
4/14/2025HouseRead the third time and passed and ordered transmitted to the Senate.
4/14/2025HouseReturned by the Committee Do Pass
4/10/2025HouseRead the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and referred to the Committee on JUDICIARY COMMITTEE- HOUSE
4/8/2025HouseRECEIVED FROM THE SENATE
4/8/2025HouseOrdered immediately transmitted to the House.
4/8/2025SenateRead the third time and passed.
4/8/2025SenateREPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED
4/7/2025SenateAmendment # 1 read the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and adopted, ordered engrossed.
4/7/2025SenatePlaced on second reading for purpose of amendment.
4/7/2025SenateReturned by the Committee with the recommendation that it Do Pass as amended, Amendment # 1
4/2/2025SenateRead first time, rules suspended, read second time, referred to JUDICIARY COMMITTEE - SENATE
4/1/2025SenateFiled
4/1/2025Senate
Bill Text
SB599 - Introduced
4/1/2025
Act Version
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