Adoption bills discussed in state legislature could make adoption easier

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Adoption in Louisiana was a big topic at the State Capitol on Tuesday, May 24. State lawmakers want to make it easier for parents to adopt children.

One of the bills has to do with keeping siblings together through adoption.

House bill 297 will become a resolution to create a study into biological siblings and how they are handled in the adoption process.

Another bill discussed Tuesday would remove the parish juvenile court as an adoption court site if that’s the parish the child is surrendered in.

“The narrowing of venue, which is called venue shopping. So, what we are trying to eliminate is when there is the opportunity for someone the bad actor to be able to try to find the court that they think that they could get their way on which would be harmful to the adoptive families who have put up thousands of dollars to adopt a child and find themselves. With the empty bankroll and no children, that is a bad scenario, and we want to eliminate that for the families that are finding themselves being abused by bad actors or fraudulent actors as it relates to adoption, which is wrong,” District 66 Representative Rick Edmonds said.

House bill 297 was recommended to create a resolution to complete a study relating to the bill.

“Well, what we were looking at today was one was a biological child could be considered as it is it related to placement, and we are going to do a study on that with Louisiana Law Institute. It just basically says if a little brother or sister is born then the opportunity for that same child that sibling to be put or placed in the same household,” Edmonds said.

House bill 252 about venue shopping has been deferred for another day.

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