The House Judiciary Committee heard Rep. Karickhoff’s HB 1245 on providing notice of adoption to grandparents. The author proposed an amendment requiring adoption notice to grandparents only when a grandparent has an order establishing or a petition filed for grandparent visitation prior to the date of the filing of the petition for adoption. The notice is limited to grandparent visitation and could not be used to contest an adoption. The notice requirement does not apply to a child to be adopted if the child is in the care, custody or control of the Department of Child Services.
Judge Margaret Robb, Indiana Court of Appeals, testified about her opinion and a footnote in Jocham v. Sutliff, 26 N.E.3d 82 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015), transfer denied, on which this legislation was based. The court held that grandparent visitation rights were cut off by adoption. In a footnote, the appellate court suggested an amendment to the adoption statute requiring notice of a petition for adoption to grandparent’s eligible for visitation by law.
Judge Robert Freese, on behalf of the Indiana Judges Association, spoke in favor of the amended bill. A member of the public spoke against the bill as amended stating the right of a grandparent to seek visitation should survive the adoption. The bill was held by the chair of the Committee and no vote was taken on the bill or the amendment.
Read the bill at: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2017/bills/house/1245