Bill > S4296

Introduced Session

This bill amends State adoption law to allow for the validity and enforceability of voluntary post-adoption contact agreements (PACA) made between the child's adoptive parents and the child's biological or other relatives. A PACA is a written agreement that allows the birth parents and other family members to maintain contact or visitation with the child being adopted, or to receive information about the child. Such agreements are common in so-called "open adoptions." Under current law, once an adoption is finalized, the birth parents and other specified persons have no legally enforceable right to have continued contact or visitation with the child, although the adoptive parents may agree to informal, voluntary out-of-court arrangements to allow continued contact. Since the enactment of the current Adoption Act, P.L.1977, c.367 (C.9:3-37 et seq.), the Legislature has continuously declined to change the law to allow open adoptions. However, in the view of the sponsor, allowing a more nuanced approach to open adoptions and PACAs will give family court judges a greater ability to tailor adoption arrangements that best serve the interests of the child, especially in cases where the adoption is contested or where there are strong existing attachments between the child and the child's biological relatives. More than half of all U.S. states, including New York and Pennsylvania, now allow open adoptions and PACAs in some form. Under the bill, if the adoptive parents agree to a PACA, the agreement will be submitted to the court. The PACA may provide for contact not only with the birth parents but also with other relatives as specified in the agreement. If the court finds that the PACA was entered into knowingly and voluntarily, and serves the best interests of the child, the court will enter an order, separate from the judgment of adoption, specifying the terms of the PACA. In determining if the PACA serves the best interests of the child, where the child is of sufficient age and capacity to form an intelligent preference, the court will solicit the child's willingness to participate in post-adoption contact and give due consideration to the child's preferences. The Family Part of the Chancery Division of the Superior Court in the vicinage where the adoption was finalized will have jurisdiction to hear any disputes concerning the PACA, but under no circumstances will the adoptive parents' failure to abide by the PACA be grounds for setting aside the judgment of adoption.

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Joe Vitale (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee (on 03/24/2025)

Official Document