Bill > HB1692

This bill, amending Tennessee Code Annotated Titles 36 and 37 concerning adoption, allows a court to waive the mandatory home study, a process that assesses the suitability of a prospective adoptive home, under specific circumstances. If a child has lived with the prospective adoptive parents for at least twelve months, and those parents were granted legal custody of the child through a court order after a full review of the case, the court may consider waiving the home study. To support this waiver, the petition must include a current criminal history background check from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and a check of the Tennessee sexual offender registry. Crucially, the court must issue a written order detailing why waiving the home study is in the child's best interest, and this waiver is not automatic but remains at the court's discretion.