Private relative (and stepparent) adoptions are streamlined under Florida law. For relatives within “the third degree of consanguinity,” the benefits include: no home study, no pre-adoption home monitoring, one court case instead of two, no special reports, waived waiting periods, far less paperwork, no pre-consent birth parent interview (although we still recommend one), no itemized expense report, and relief from Florida’s restrictions on out-of-state placements.
Recently a Florida court ruled that relative degrees are based on the common law definitions, rather than civil law. It used to be that most attorneys and judges believed that 3 degrees was limited to the teal highlighted boxes below. But the purple highlighted boxes are now considered to be within 3 degrees as well. This really opens up relative adoptions in Florida!
