Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 1, Part 1; Title 36, Chapter 2 and Section 37-1-102.

This bill makes various changes to present law concerning adoption and termination of parental rights, including the following:<br /> <br /> (1) This bill adds a requirement that a person who is surrendering a child complete a social and medical history form and attach the completed and executed form to the surrendering party's pre-surrender information form;<br /> (2) This bill deletes the reference to a mother's statement having been "sworn" in the biological father's waiver of interest and notice form;<br /> (3) This bill removes failure to pay a reasonable share of prenatal, natal, and postnatal expenses involving the birth of the child as a basis for terminating the parental rights of a putative father;<br /> (4) Under present law, one of the bases for terminating the parental rights of a putative father is failure to file a petition to establish paternity of the child within 30 days after notice of alleged paternity. Notice may be written or oral. Under present law, an effective oral notice is a statement to an alleged biological father from a biological mother that the alleged biological father is believed to be the biological father of the biological mother's child. This bill adds that adequate notice includes a statement to an alleged biological father from a biological mother that the alleged biological father is believed to be the "possible" biological father of the biological mother's child;<br /> (5) This bill corrects typographical errors and makes various grammatical changes to the surrender, acceptance, pre-surrender information, pre-acceptance information, and revocation of surrender forms;<br /> (6) This bill removes superfluous references to affidavits that evidence a person's right or expectation to receive a surrendered child;<br /> (7) Under present law, it is a Class A misdemeanor offense for any person, upon request by any party to an adoption or the party's agent or attorney, a licensed child-placing agency, or licensed clinical social worker, the department, or the court, to knowingly and willfully:<br /> <br /> (A) Withhold any information related to the child who is the subject of a surrender, a termination of parental rights, or an adoption proceeding, or the identity, status, or whereabouts of the child's parent or guardian; or<br /> (B) Give false information concerning the child or the identity, status, or whereabouts of the child's parent or guardian.<br /> <br /> This bill extends the Class A misdemeanor to include knowingly and willfully withholding information, or giving false information, concerning a putative father;<br /> <br /> (8) Under present law, a conviction for severe child abuse against a child's parent or guardian is a ground to initiate termination of parental or guardianship rights. This bill adds the criminal offenses sexual battery by an authority figure, Class B felony soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor - exploitation of a minor by electronic means, aggravated rape of a child, and statutory rape by an authority figure to the list of offenses that constitute severe child abuse;<br /> (9) This bill clarifies that an adoption petition may be made upon information and belief and must be verified;<br /> (10) This bill reconciles differing provisions of law concerning the contents of an adoption petition or a petition for termination of parental rights with regard to petitioner's duty to consult putative father registries in other states. Under this bill, notice to out-of-state registries may be required for an adoption petition but no longer appears to be required for a petition for termination of parental rights. For a petition to terminate parental rights, this bill specifies that the Tennessee registry must be notified if the child is less than 30 days old at the time of filing. This bill also allows substitution of naming a putative father in the petition, if the putative father's status has been confirmed by DNA testing, in lieu of affirming consultation with applicable putative father registries;<br /> (11) Under present law, any person who files a petition to adopt a child less than 30 days old must notify the putative father registry of the filing of the petition unless the known biological or legal father has executed a surrender or a waiver of interest, had parental rights judicially terminated, or was made a party to the adoption proceedings and has been served legal notice. This bill replaces present law to instead require that, if Tennessee adoption laws require a putative father registry check in any other state and that state will not permit access to its putative father registry, does not respond within 30 days, or requires a fee determined by the court to be unreasonable, and the court finds that the petitioner has otherwise made diligent efforts to identify the child's biological father, the court may waive the putative father registry check and enter an order of adoption;<br /> (12) This bill adds that a person whose paternity has been excluded by DNA testing is not a "putative father" for purposes of adoption law in Tennessee;<br /> (13) This bill clarifies that no further action is required to terminate the parental rights of a parent who is proved to be deceased; and<br /> (14) This bill adds a definition of "conservator" to the adoption laws and substitutes the term "conservator" for guardian in certain instances to denote a person who has been appointed by a court as conservator for an adult with a legal disability.<br /> <br /> ON FEBRUARY 21, 2019, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 208, AS AMENDED.<br /> <br /> AMENDMENT #1 corrects a typographical error and removes a cross reference that would have classified the offense soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor - exploitation of a minor by electronic means as severe child abuse for purposes of initiating termination of parental or guardianship rights against a child's parent or guardian.<br /> <br />