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Senate approves adoption-code revisions clarifying stepparent adoption rights and raising counseling fee cap
Summary
Senators approved House Bill 42, an Adoption and Revisions bill, clarifying parental rights in certain stepparent adoptions and increasing required birth-parent counseling from $250 to $400; the measure passed third-reading by a recorded vote of 22-1 with 6 absent.
The Utah Senate voted March 4 to advance House Bill 42, an adoption-code cleanup measure recommended by the Health and Human Services Interim Committee.
Senator Lundinquist presented the bill and said it corrects a gap in the adoption code (citing the code section discussed on the floor) to clarify that a biological parent who is married to a stepparent who adopts the child retains parental rights in the narrow circumstance described. Lundinquist also noted a $250-to-$400 increase in the amount adoptive parents can be required to pay for birth-parent counseling and several technical clarifications aligned with judges' requests.
The Senate recorded the third-reading roll call for HB42: "having received 22 yay votes, 1 nay vote, 6 being absent," and the bill was placed at the bottom of the third-reading calendar.
The sponsor said the bill was largely a consensus product from the Adoption Council and the interim committee and described it as narrowly tailored to preserve parental rights in the enumerated circumstance.
Next steps: HB42 will be considered on third reading as scheduled on the chamber calendar.
