On Wednesday, the Alabama House Children and Seniors Advocacy Committee gave a favorable report to a bill to replace Alabama’s existing adoption statutes with new code language that sponsors claim will make the adoption process faster, less burdensome, and more affordable.
House Bill 101 (HB101) is sponsored by State Representative Ginny Shaver, who Chairs the committee.
“This a Law Institute (ALI) bill,” Shaver said. “I started working on a bill and found out that they already had a committee working on rewriting the state’s adoption code.”
“The committee has worked for over four years,” Shaver explained, “The Committee has brought in stakeholders from all over the adoption field.”
“I started working with the committee in 2021, not to write the bill, but to learn,” Shaver said. “Alabama’s adoption law has not been touched in 30 years.”
Shaver said the rewritten 80-page bill “is very comprehensive and detailed.”
“The goal was to update the language and streamline the process and protect the confidentiality of the parties,” said Shaver. “To put it as simply as I can, this bill repeals that current adoption code and replaces it.”
Shaver said that the new legislation divided minor adoptions versus adult adoptions. It also clarifies which court is the proper court, allows courts handling adoptions to work together and communicate, allows for electronic communication, provides rules for a contest of adoptions in certain situations, and clarifies procedures about relatives and stepparents who adopt a minor.
“My concern about adoption is to make it simpler and also to save time and money,” Shaver said. “We want to do everything possible to get a child into a permanent home as soon as possible.”
“This streamlines the process and provides clarity to make it better going forward,” Shaver said.
State Rep. Barbara Boyd said, “When you are changing codes, you really don’t know what we are voting on unless you are an attorney. I read the whole bill, but I still don’t understand it. In my opinion, it is not a good job.”
“We did have a summary, and the Law Institute did provide answers to questions after each section,” Shaver said.
State Rep. Randall Shedd, “I want to thank you for your work. A lot of people worked hard on this bill. It may not be a perfect bill, but it is real close to it.”
State Rep. Barbara Drummond told reporters at a minority caucus press event afterward, “This bill is a Law Institute bill that overhauls the whole code on adoption.”
The committee voted to give HB101 bill a favorable report as amended.
The committee also voted to give a favorable report to House Bill 103 (HB103), which is sponsored by State Rep. Allen Baker.
“This is an adoption-related bill,” Baker said. “This bill would authorize sick leave for state employees to deal with issues related to adoption.”
Boyd asked, “How does this bill differ from current law?”
“This clarifies more than changes,” Baker said. “This adds clarity. To this point, this has been up to the discretion of the agency.”
Drummond asked, “Is higher ed in there?”
Baker said the community college system and four-year higher education institutions were included.
Two technical amendments were approved by the committee.
HB103 received a favorable report from the Committee in a unanimous vote.
Both HB101 and HB103 could be considered by the full House of Representatives as early as Thursday.
Thursday will be day four of the 2023 Alabama Regular Legislative Session. Regular sessions are limited to no more than thirty legislative days.
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