Title 36, Domestic Relations

Any employee of the state of Tennessee who is convicted of the violation of any of the criminal provisions of this part shall be instantly dismissed from the state service and shall never again be eligible for employment in state service.

(a) Any minor child who was previously adopted under the laws of any jurisdiction may be subsequently readopted in accordance with this part. (b) With respect to a child sought to be adopted a second time or subsequent time by new adoptive parents, all provisions in this part rel…

(a) Any person, irrespective of place of birth, citizenship, or place of residence, may be adopted or readopted in accordance with this part. (b) A single person may file a petition for the adoption of a child. (c) An adult may be adopted.

(a) (1) No person, corporation, agency, or other entity, except the department or a licensed child-placing agency or licensed clinical social worker, as defined in § 36-1-102, shall engage in the placement of children for adoption; provided, that this section shall not be constru…

(a) It is unlawful for any person, corporation, agency, or other entity other than the department or a licensed child-placing agency or licensed clinical social worker, as defined in § 36-1-102, that is subject to regulation by the department to:(1) (A) Charge or receive from or …

(a) A parent who has not reached eighteen (18) years of age shall have the legal capacity to surrender a child or otherwise give parental consent to adoption or execute a waiver of interest and to release such parent's rights to a child, and shall be as fully bound thereby as if …

(a) (1) Prior to receiving a surrender by a parent of a child or prior to the execution of a parental consent by a parent in a petition for adoption, the prospective adoptive parents shall request a licensed child-placing agency, a licensed clinical social worker, or, if indigent…

(a) (1) (A) A person who executed a surrender may revoke the surrender at any time within three (3) calendar days of the date of the surrender. The three-day period shall be calculated using the method for computation of time established in the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure …

(a) The chancery and circuit courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the juvenile court to terminate parental or guardianship rights to a child in a separate proceeding, or as a part of the adoption proceeding by utilizing any grounds for termination of parental or guardia…

(a) The termination petition may be filed in the county:(1) Where the petitioners reside;(2) Where the child resides;(3) Where, at the time the petition is filed, any respondent resides;(4) In which is located any licensed child-placing agency or institution operated under the la…

(a) Any person over eighteen (18) years of age may petition the chancery or circuit court to adopt a person and may request that the adopted person's name be changed. (b) The petitioners must have physical custody or must demonstrate to the court that they have the right to recei…

(a) (1) Prior to filing a petition for the adoption of a child, the prospective adoptive parents shall, except as otherwise provided by law, contact a licensed child-placing agency, or a licensed clinical social worker, or if indigent under federal poverty guidelines, they shall,…

(a) Only a legal parent, guardian, or putative father of the child is a necessary party to the adoption proceeding or to a separate proceeding seeking termination of those rights prior to the entry of an order of adoption, and those rights must be terminated prior to the entry of…

(a) If at any time between the surrender of a child directly to prospective adoptive parents or a licensed child-placing agency and the filing of an adoption petition or at any time between the filing of an adoption petition and the issuance of the final order of the adoption, it…

(a) Unless the child is related to the petitioners, a final order of adoption shall not be entered before the home study has been filed with the court and before the petition has been on file at least six (6) months and before a final court report is filed with the court, except …

(a) The final order of adoption must state:(1) The full name of the child used in the proceeding;(2) The full names of the petitioners and their county of residence and whether the petitioner is a stepparent of the adopted person;(3) The fact and date of the filing of the petitio…

(a) The signing of a final order of adoption terminates any existing guardianship orders and establishes from that date the relationship of parent and child between the adoptive parent or parents and the adopted child as if the adopted child had been born to the adoptive parent o…

(a) When a child is adopted pursuant to this part, the adoptive parents shall not thereafter be deprived of any rights in the child, at the insistence of the child's biological or prior legal parents or guardian of the child or any other person or agency except in the same manner…

(a) Any biological or prior legal parents or guardian whose rights to a child have been terminated by order of any court under this part or any other title or by the laws of any other state or territory, or foreign country, or by a surrender, parental consent, or waiver of intere…

(a) In all cases where the termination of parental rights or adoption of a child is contested by any person or agency, the trial court shall, consistent with due process, expedite the contested termination or adoption proceeding by setting a scheduling conference within thirty (3…

(a) All adoption records, sealed adoption records, or sealed records held by a court, the department, a licensed child-placing agency, a licensed clinical social worker or any other person, and not yet under seal, or any sealed adoption records or sealed records that have been un…

(a) After the entry of the final order of adoption, all adoption records, court reports, home studies, preliminary home studies, other reports, other documents or papers, or other information concerning the placement of a person for adoption, or other information concerning the l…

(a) (1) On March 16, 1951, chapter 202 of the Public Acts of 1951 became effective. As a result, all records related to persons who had been adopted, all records concerning a person for whom any records were maintained and that may have related to an adoption or attempted adoptio…

(a) Upon written request of an adopted person eighteen (18) years of age or older or of the adoptive parents or guardian of an adopted person under eighteen (18) years of age, the biological or legal relatives of an adopted person, the lineal descendants of the adopted person, or…

(a) (1) The department, or a licensed child-placing agency or the licensed clinical social worker that has had a prior relationship with the persons stated in § 36-1-133(a) through placement of a child or through a home study process and that maintains a limited record or post-ad…

(a) The department shall update its post-adoption records with any medical, psychological or psychiatric information provided by an adopted person or a person for whom records are maintained, as described in § 36-1-127(c)(1)(A), eighteen (18) years of age or older, or such person…

(a) (1) A notification required to be made as part of a search or a contact or an identifying request pursuant to this part for an adopted person or a person for whom records are maintained as described in § 36-1-127(c)(1)(A), shall be made with such persons who are eighteen (18)…

(a) If, after reviewing the sealed adoption records, the sealed records or the post-adoption records, and any other credible evidence, and after conducting a diligent search and making any other reasonable inquiries as to the adoptive status of a requesting party or the relations…

(a) (1) Any necessary information in the files or the record of an adoption proceeding or in an adoption record, sealed adoption record, sealed record, post-adoption record or adoption assistance record may be disclosed pursuant to the requirements of subsection (c), to the party…

Any person who or entity that knowingly provides false information to the department, a licensed child-placing agency or licensed clinical social worker, or the court in connection with any of §§ 36-1-125 — 36-1-138 or § 36-1-141, or the rules and regulations of the department th…

(a) The actions of the personnel of the department, or the departments of health, finance and administration, and general services, or their successors, undertaken in the performance of their duties pursuant to §§ 36-1-125 — 36-1-138 or pursuant to § 36-2-318, or those actions of…

(a) (1) (A) The department shall, by rules promulgated pursuant to the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, part 2, establish fees or charges for conducting any search or record disclosure, except for those pursuant to § 36-1-135, and for transmi…

(a) Notwithstanding a law to the contrary and without complying with the surrender provision of this part, a facility or newborn safety device, as defined in § 68-11-255, shall receive possession of an infant aged forty-five (45) days or younger upon the voluntary delivery of the…

(a) The department shall provide post-adoption services in order to reduce the risk of adoption dissolution and to support the goal of permanency in adoption. (b) The department shall provide the following post-adoption services either directly or through purchase of service prov…

(a) To provide full disclosure about a child to be adopted from the department's guardianship, the department shall provide to the adoptive family the following categories of information, to the extent that they are available:(1) Historical and current health information;(2) Hist…

(a) A prospective adoptive parent or an adoptive parent and a biological parent; or a prospective adoptive parent or an adoptive parent, a biological parent, and a child who is fourteen (14) years of age or older who is being adopted or who has been adopted, may voluntarily enter…

If a court appoints a guardian ad litem in a pending adoption proceeding, there will be a rebuttable presumption that the guardian ad litem's fees shall be divided equally between the parties, excluding the person being adopted; provided, that if a party is found by the court to …

(a) To the extent allowed by federal law, no private licensed child-placing agency shall be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the age…

(a) The department shall not require an individual or members of the individual's household to undergo an immunization as a condition of adopting unless the child is under eighteen (18) months of age or has significant documented medical needs that would necessitate the caregiver…

Notwithstanding § 36-1-102, § 36-1-125, § 36-1-126, § 36-1-127, § 68-3-313, or another law to the contrary, all adoption records, sealed adoption records, and unsealed adoption records deemed to be confidential pursuant to this part will be a public record and open to inspection …

(a) As used in this section:(1) “Capacity” means the same as defined in § 31-4-106;(2) “Notice” means a written notice of intent to execute an out of court surrender; and(3) “Out-of-court surrender” means a surrender of parental rights that is voluntarily executed in writing and …

INTERSTATE COMPACT ON ADOPTION AND MEDICAL ASSISTANCE The Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance is hereby enacted into law and entered into with all other jurisdictions legally joining therein in form substantially as follows: INTERSTATE COMPACT ON ADOPTION AND ME…

The amounts of adoption assistance and other aid that Tennessee will provide to children with special needs in accordance with Article IV of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance shall be determined in accordance with § 37-5-106(a)(13).

For the purpose of determining eligibility for any benefit under this part from the state of Tennessee, the adoptive parents of any child on whose behalf benefits are sought shall annually furnish the department of children's services documentation establishing that the adoption …

This part shall apply only to medical assistance for children under adoption assistance agreements from states that have entered into a compact with this state under which the other state provides medical assistance to children with special needs under adoption assistance agreeme…

Whoever knowingly obtains, or attempts to obtain, or aids, or abets any person to obtain, by means of a willfully false statement or representation or by impersonation, or other fraudulent device, any assistance on behalf of a child or other person pursuant to the Interstate Comp…