Section 5d – Release of Information Concerning Adoption
Section 5D. (a) A placement agency, as defined in section 1A of chapter 15D, holding records relating to an adopted person, the biological parents of an adopted person or the adoptive parents of an adopted person shall: (1) release to such adopted person, if he has reached the age of eighteen years, upon his written […]
Section 5e – Department of Children and Families Adoption Report
Section 5E. The department of children and families shall submit a report detailing the number and nature, as defined jointly by department and the University of Massachusetts center for adoption research and policy in Worcester, of adoptions processed by the department during each calendar quarter to be filed with said center on the first day […]
Section 6 – Decree of Court; Force and Effect; Private Hearings
Section 6. If the court is satisfied of the identity and relations of the persons, and that the petitioner is of sufficient ability to bring up the child and provide suitable support and education for it, and that the child should be adopted, it shall make a decree, by which, except as regards succession to […]
Section 6a – Certificates of Adoption
Section 6A. The court shall forthwith, following the making of a decree of adoption, issue to the petitioner, or petitioners, a certificate of adoption setting forth all the facts relating to the adopting parent, or parents, as appearing in the statement required to be filed by section six, the name of, and all other facts […]
Section 6b – Adoption Nunc Pro Tunc
Section 6B. In the event that either of the petitioning adopting parents to a petition for adoption, which has been filed with the probate court, should die prior to the entry of a decree of adoption, the probate court may enter a decree within three months following the date of death nunc pro tunc to […]
Section 6c – Agreement for Post-Adoption Contact or Communication
Section 6C. (a) Prior to the entry of an adoption decree, prospective adoptive parents and a birth parent may enter into an agreement for post-adoption contact or communication between or among a minor to be adopted, the prospective adoptive parents and the birth parents. Such agreement may be approved by the court issuing the termination […]
Section 6d – Enforcement of Agreement
Section 6D. A party to a court-approved agreement for post-adoption contact or communication may seek to enforce the agreement by commencing a civil action for specific performance. A court order for specific performance of the terms of a post-adoption contact agreement shall be the sole remedy for breach of an agreement. In such proceedings, parties […]
Section 2b – Adoption Decrees; Mandatory Language
Section 2B. Every decree of adoption entered by the court shall include the words ”This adoption is final and irrevocable.”
Section 3 – Dispensing With Required Consent in Certain Cases
Section 3. (a) Whenever a petition for adoption is filed by a person having the care or custody of a child, the consent of the persons named in section 2, other than that of the child, shall not be required if:— (i) the person to be adopted is 18 years of age or older; or […]
Section 3b – Registration of Interest for Pre-Adoptive or Adoptive Placement; Criminal Record Review
Section 3B. When deciding whether to approve or reject a registration of interest for pre-adoptive or adoptive placement, the department shall conduct a review of any misdemeanor offense discovered through a criminal offender record information search conducted pursuant to section 172B of chapter 6 in order to assist the department in accurately evaluating whether the […]