Opinion ID: 852370
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: DCS Consent to the Adoption

Text: The General Assembly has required that before a child may be placed in a proposed adoptive home, the Department of Child Services or a child placing agency licensed by the Department must give prior written approval. Ind.Code § 31-19-7-1(a) (2008). It seems obvious enough that this legislative directive is designed to protect children, certainly including infants like those who are the subject of this case. The evidentiary grounds for waiving this requirement, a request made at the very first hearing, consisted of the following exchange before the adoption court: Litz: Okay. You're also asking the Judge to waive the requirement for a home study before the children are placed with you, correct? Petitioner: Yes. Litz: Now as it turns out because of the timing it's probably likely that we're going to have a home study done anyway, but in the event that we don't, we're asking the Judge to waive that requirement, correct? Petitioner: Yes. (Apr. 13, 2005, Tr. at 7.) Because the CHINS proceedings gave DCS knowledge about the pending adoption, it was later able to intervene in the adoption court. Otherwise, it could not have done so. Dispensing with the Department's statutory role before the Department even knew of the adoption, based solely on the Petitioner's request, was error.