Conditional Surrender type of Voluntary Surrender

I once asked this question in Missouri and was told that parents can surrender their rights or not. They don't get to pick the subsequent parents when the child is in care for abuse or neglect. Interesting.....

In our case Biodad did a conditional surrender - it's conditional on the fact that Biomom get TPR'd. The caseplan was already for TPR & for us to adopt which is what he wants. If for some reason Biomom does not get TPR'd (we're awaiting judge's decision), then Biodad's surrender will be null & void.

Here in MN ours worked like this...Bio parents were told that they could help select the adoptive parents. SW would have veto power. They grabbed adoptive family profiles and went to work selecting best adoptive family. Birth parents choose us.Parents went into court and signed a "consent to adopt" listing us as the adoptive home with our full names as the adoptive parents.two weeks later they went back into court and signed the termination papers.So yes our children's bio parents did get to help in the selection process if they voluntarily reliquished. Good luck

In our case, the BioDad had already surrendered thinking that Mom would keep the baby. We ended up with the baby when she came into care the second time. Mom's lawyer, the CASA, and the CW all wanted her to surrender to us. This way, Mom's lawyer could write up an agreement that Mom was comfortable with as an incentive for her to sign. The alternative would have been for the baby to go to a relative who would never allow Mom to see the baby because if she didn't do an identified surrender then the state would have to give the baby to the relative. We were comfortable with the agreement as well. So the lawyer wrote up a contract that named us as the adoptive parents.

I am in Il and in my county at least there are surrenders to the afency and identified surrenders. An identified surrender is a good thing only if the foster parent is sure that they are going to adopt the child. For some reasons the rules are different with an identified surrender. The main rule is that noone but the persons listed in the surrender can adopt the child. The second rule is that a petition for adoption must be submitted to the courts with in one year of the identified surrender ot else it is void. Which could mean relocationg the bio family member and seeing if they are up to parenting standereds. As a foster parent I was thrilled to get an identified surrender of my older boys. It ment so much to me, and it is something positive that I can share with them. So for us it is a good thing, however I know of a parent who was pressured into adoption because they let the biomom do an identified surrender, and they only asked this mom that day in front of a crying bio if she would adopt.

Also in MN, our daughter's birthparents surrendered on the premise that we would adopt their daughter. If we had not done so, their voluntary termination would have gone away... and then they would have been TPR'd anyway.

Thank you all for your replies. For anyone with experience in a conditional surrender or identified surrender, can you speak to if the adoption was faster/smoother? That is, faster/smoother than a regular voluntary surrender (where the adoptive parents are not named)? I assume that any type of voluntary surrender (identfied or not) is faster than TPR/adoption. Does an indentified/conditional surrender still go through all the same home study steps, etc?

In all of mine or my friends experiences, it went the same. In my youngests sons case his parents rights were terminated a few months after my friend had a child parents identified surrender. I actually adopted my son four months faster. Who knows why the system is the way it is.

I know in our case they wouldn't allow a conditional surrender or any promises to bioparents. That way, if we were not able to adopt our niece, then the bioparents couldn't come back and sue them. Sometimes the Judge rules differently or things change. They told us they just don't do conditional surrenders there due to this issue.

I think in places that allow an identified surrender, it makes the process go much more quickly and smoothly. As far as I know, in any case of voluntary relinquishment the "appeal" period is waived, and that is the part of the procedure that can be the most drawn out and scary. ALSO- I'm assuming that this builds better bonds between the bio parents and adoptive parents. Whether or not there is going to be any continuing contact, the positive aspect of choice and consent is pretty powerful. It would take some of the anger, hurt and resentment out of it, I think! One caveat - I would never consent to being a part of an identified surrender that would legally obligate me to any kind of contact or open-ness agreement.