Opinion ID: 2640218
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Legislative History Regarding the 2006 Amendment

Text: In 2006, the legislature amended K.S.A. 59-2136(d) for the first time since it added the rebuttable presumption language in 1991 to add the following sentence to the end of the section: The court may consider the best interests of the child and the fitness of the nonconsenting parent in determining whether a stepparent adoption should be granted. K.S.A.2007 Supp. 59-2136(d); L. 2006, ch. 22, sec. 1. The Court of Appeals' decision in this case is the first and only case interpreting the amendment to date. The 2006 amendment was enacted as part of House Bill 2665, L. 2006, ch. 22, sec. 1 (H.B. 2665), which also amended K.S.A. 59-2136(h) (governing the termination of parental rights in adoption cases) to include a similar provision. See K.S.A.2007 Supp. 59-2136(h)(2)(A). The majority opinion by the Court of Appeals in this case correctly points out that the version of H.B. 2665 originally introduced did not contain any change to the stepparent adoption provisions of K.S.A. 59-2136(d), but instead focused on the provisions concerning the termination of parental rights. See In re Adoption of G.L.V., 38 Kan.App.2d 144, 150-52, 163 P.3d 334 (2007). As the Court of Appeals explained below: Contrary to the district court's findings [that the legislature changed the wording of the amendment to state that the court `shall' consider the best interests of the child to stating that the court `may' consider those interests], the original version of H.B. 2665 did not amend K.S.A. 59-2136(d). Instead, it only amended 59-2136(h), which is a general provision that sets forth the factors a district court should consider when determining whether to terminate parental rights in an adoption case. [Citation omitted.] The original version of H.B. 2665 amended 59-2136(h) by adding the following italicized language: `In making a finding whether parental rights shall be terminated under this subsection, the court: (1) Shall consider and weigh the best interest of the child. ...' The House Judiciary Committee later amended H.B. 2665 by changing the above-mentioned `shall' in 59-2136(h) to `may' and also by adding the best interests of the child language to 59-2136(d). House J.2006, p. 1234. G.L.V., 38 Kan.App.2d at 150, 163 P.3d 334. The stepparent adoption amendment that was eventually incorporated in H.B. 2665 was originally included as part of House Bill 2914 (H.B.2914), which would have added the following provision to the end of K.S.A. 59-2136(d): The failure of a father to provide a substantial portion of the child support because such father has been convicted and is imprisoned shall not be sufficient to rebut such rebuttable presumption. Failure of the father to either provide a substantial portion of the child support as required by judicial decree or perform the other duties of a parent shall be sufficient for the court to determine that such father's consent is not required in a stepparent adoption. The court may consider the best interests of the child and the fitness of the nonconsenting parent in determining whether a stepparent adoption should be granted. Only the final sentence of this proposed bill was incorporated into H.B. 2665 (and eventually, K.S.A.2007 Supp. 59-2136[d]). The Court of Appeals, in considering these two bills, found that the legislature's omission of the second sentence in the H.B. 2914 amendment (stating that failure to either provide a substantial portion of the requisite child support or perform other duties is sufficient to determine that a father's consent is not required) from its enactment further supports the interpretation that the legislature did not intend to change the parental duties test in determining whether a stepparent adoption can be granted without the natural parent's consent. G.L.V., 38 Kan. App.2d at 152, 163 P.3d 334. This assumption by the Court of Appealsthat the omission of the second sentence in H.B. 2914 from its eventual enactment indicated support for the current ledger testis based only on the absence of the language from K.S.A.2007 Supp. 59-2136(d). The omission of language from proposed legislation seldom, if ever, provides support for determining legislative intent. While it may be true that the legislature chose to omit that language for the reasons espoused in the majority opinion of the Court of Appeals, it may be equally true that the language was omitted for some other reason. For example, notes for the House Judiciary Committee provide no support for the Court of Appeals' interpretation, but those notes do state that [s]ome committee members expressed that just because a person is incarcerated doesn't mean that one doesn't pay child support, granted that payment is not as much as one would be able to pay if they weren't incarcerated. Minutes, House Judiciary Committee, February 15, 2006. It is just as plausible to interpret these concerns and the eventual incorporation of only the last sentence into the amendment as evidence that the committee members favored a totality of the circumstances approach similar to that used by this court prior to its adoption of the ledger test. Perhaps the only thing that is certain from the committee notes and legislative history of H.B. 2665 is that the impetus behind the bill's consideration and eventual passage was the legislature's concern that the best interests of the child (and fitness of the nonconsenting parent) be a factor for consideration in adoption cases. At a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, one witness specifically focused on this court's case law, which holds that the best interests of the child are not considered in adoption cases. See Minutes, House Judiciary Committee, February 6, 2006 (citing S.E.B. as holding that the `best interest' of a child is not a stated factor for the Court to consider with terminating the rights of a biological parent). The bill's sponsor explained that the motivation behind the bill was to protect children in adoption cases. Minutes, House Judiciary Committee, February 6, 2006. Contrary to the findings by the district court and the Court of Appeals in this case, the legislative history behind the 2006 amendment in K.S.A.2007 Supp. 59-2136(d) provides little guidance as to the legislative intent in enacting the new language. Nevertheless, it is clear that the legislature intended that courts in adoption cases at least have the option of considering the best interests of the child and the fitness of the nonconsenting parent. The question is how this intent, as codified in the eventual amendment, alters the ledger test previously utilized by this court in stepparent adoption cases.