Step-parent adoption, in Minnesota, involves four key steps: (1) termination of parental rights; (2) a petition for adoption; (3) background checks by court services; and (4) a final hearing. The first step in the process of step-parent adoption, a termination of parental rights, is the most challenging aspects of these cases. The very nature of a step-parent adoption presumes that a child’s biological parent (typically, but not necessarily, the father) has been denied the ongoing right to a parent/child relationship. Termination of parental rights …
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