48.90 Filing of adoption petition; preadoption residence.

(1) A petition for adoption may be filed at any time if:

(a) One of the petitioners is a relative of the child by blood or by adoption, excluding parents whose parental rights have been terminated and persons whose relationship to the child is derived through such parents.

(b) The petitioner is the child's stepparent.

(c) The petition is accompanied by a written approval of the guardian.

(d) The petitioner is the proposed adoptive parent with whom the child has been placed under s. 48.839.

(2) Except as provided under sub. (1), no petition for adoption may be filed unless the child has been in the home of the petitioners for 6 months or more.

(3) No petition for adoption may be filed unless the petitioners have complied with all applicable provisions of this chapter relating to adoptive placements.

History: 1973 c. 263; 1977 c. 354; 1977 c. 418 s. 929 (18); 1981 c. 81; 1997 a. 104.

Once administrative proceedings to remove a child from an in-home placement have commenced under s. 48.64 and the person with whom the child had been placed is seeking a review of the removal order, a children's court has no jurisdiction over an adoption petition filed by the person after issuance of the removal order. Adoption of Shawn, 65 Wis. 2d 190, 222 N.W.2d 139 (1974).

Standing to object to adoption proceedings turns on the right to petition for adoption; grandparents excluded from petitioning under sub. (1) (a) had no standing to object to the adoption of their grandchildren. Adoption of J.C.G. 177 Wis. 2d 424, 501 N.W.2d 908 (Ct. App. 1993).