(1) The general assembly hereby finds that parental relinquishment and adoption of children are important and necessary options to facilitate the permanent placement of minor children if the birth parents are unable or unwilling to provide proper parental care. The general assembly further finds that adoption offers significant psychological, legal, economic, and social benefits not only for children who might otherwise be homeless but also for parents who are unable to care for their children and for adoptive parents who desire children to nurture, care for, and support. Conversely, the general assembly recognizes that disrupted adoptive placements often have a profound and negative impact on individuals, particularly children, involved in the adoption proceedings.
(2) It is the purpose of this article 5 to promote the integrity and finality of adoptions to ensure that children placed in adoptive placements will be raised in stable, loving, and permanent families. It is the further intent of the general assembly that a prospective parent with a disability should not be denied the opportunity to provide a permanent adoptive placement for a child based solely on the parent's disability, as provided for in section 24-34-805 (2). The general assembly intends that by enacting this legislation, it will be protecting children from being uprooted from adoptive placements and from the life-long emotional and psychological trauma that often accompanies being indiscriminately moved.
Source: L. 94: Entire section added, p. 746, § 1, effective April 20. L. 2018: (2) amended, (HB 18-1104), ch. 164, p. 1135, § 9, effective April 25.
ANNOTATION
Language of legislative declaration should not be construed to recognize the importance of the adoption process at the cost of denying the rights of a fit biological parent. M.C. v. Adoption Choices of Colo., Inc., 2014 COA 161, 369 P.3d 659, rev'd on other grounds, 2015 CO 72, 363 P.3d 193.
Articles 3 and 5 of the Children's Code are not interchangeable for purposes of termination of parental rights. Parental rights cannot be terminated under article 5 if a dependency and neglect action under this article 3 is still active. People in Interest of E.M., 2016 COA 38M, 417 P.3d 843, aff'd sub nom. People in Interest of L.M., 2018 CO 34, 416 P.3d 875.